Drawn Together
by Malkharah
Summary: Entering her third year of university, Marinette struggles with balancing the demands of class work, her internship at Agreste Fashions, and her responsibilities as a super hero. Her life is slowly and pleasantly turned upside down when the model for her Figure Drawing class turns out to be none other than her long lost crush Adrien Agreste. "Don't make it weird."
1. Strange Luck

**Chapter 1: Strange Luck**

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-oOo-

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Marinette sighed as she allowed the huge portfolio bag to slide off her shoulder and angled it to carefully lean against the heavy easel. Between the rigid art board, the booklet of sketching paper and second booklet of heavier drawing paper for more formal works, and numerous loose items, the bag probably weighed over thirty pounds. From her other hand she released her tackle box full of drawing charcoals, pencils, pastels, chamois, and various erasers, at least another ten pounds of materials. Next went her backpack of notebooks, text books and laptop. Setting down all the things she had to carry to this art course was such a relief it was almost like floating by comparison.

It's not that Marinette was weak… On the contrary, she was exceptionally strong and fit. Moonlighting as a superhero will do that for a girl. It was just that the akuma that had struck last night had been a doozy; a construction worker who'd been injured on the job and subsequently let go because of it. He felt pretty rightfully bitter and enraged, and Hawkmoth had taken advantage of him in that moment of weakness to turn him into Sledge. And good lord did he ever hit like one… Even after Chat Noir was able to knock off and crush his hard-hat to release the akuma and Ladybug's Healing Light had passed over the entire site to magically repair the damage, she could still feel tenderness in her ribs where she'd gotten caught by the akuma victim's 30lb sledge hammer and along her back where that hit had slammed her into a concrete wall. Her Healing Light repaired all the damage, but big hits like that, where she or Chat took serious wounds, always left some residual pain and tenderness for a few days, like a lingering ghost of the injury that had been healed.

The magic from healing the injury did draw from her own body's ability to repair itself, which was diminished slightly by her somewhat lean calorie intake. Her food budget was basically depleted until she received her next meager paycheck from her internship, so she was subsiding off of cookies, fruit, and sweetened black coffee until she could replenish her pantry at the end of the week.

Happy to be free of her heavy burdens, Marinette pulled her travel mug out of a side pouch of her backpack and smiled at Tikki, who was sleeping curled up in a little ball in the pocket of her backpack that would usually be used for sunglasses. Healing Marinette's injuries from last night had taken a lot out of the tiny goddess; she'd gobbled down a half dozen shortbread cookies and been passed out for the last seven hours. She zipped Tikki's sleeping compartment shut and sipped on her coffee as she began setting up her easel and drawing pad for today's class.

Marinette hummed absently as she worked. She'd been initially skeptical at the suggestion from the manager of her internship at Agreste Fashions that she should take a class on anatomy and figure drawing, but after the first three weeks of the course this semester she was happy she'd taken the advice. She could already tell that it was positively affecting her design career, and her ability to draw a more realistic looking figure made her designs look much more appealing and professional.

The internship at Agreste Fashions had been going for five weeks now, and she was learning so much. Fashion Week was coming up at the end of the month, and with deadlines looming she had to put forward the very best work she could muster. If she was good enough, some of her designs could be featured in an Up and Coming exhibit!

Setting down her thermos of coffee, Marinette carefully stretched her arms over her head, trying to ease those sore ribs.

Foots steps in the hall and the quiet singing of a woman warned Marinette she was about to have company.

Claudia Minagawa stepped lightly into the room with her portfolio under one arm. Marinette had met Claudia in her second year of university and they had become pretty good friends. Both fashion design majors, they agreed to apply together for the internship at Agreste Fashions, and were thrilled and stunned to both be accepted. Claudia was very much a kindred spirit to Marinette and a calm voice of reason to Marinette's sometimes frenetic exuberance. "Good morning, Marinette!"

The raven haired woman dropped her stretch and tugged her pants straight. They had become a little baggy recently since she couldn't seem to keep from slowly losing weight and tended to slide down her hips. They were old and worn, and not really worth the effort of taking in. "Good morning, Claudia. How was your weekend?"

"Eh, same old, same old. Nothing exciting happened in my neck of the woods." Claudia set her things down at the easel beside Marinette and wandered over to the windows to open the blinds and let in some sunlight. "That party at Georgette's dorm was pretty great on Saturday, though! You sure missed out."

Marinette smiled apologetically, "Yeah, sorry but I had work to do for the internship and my parents asked me to watch the shop so they could go out for dinner."

"Mari, you're too nice." Claudia shook her head. "You could have told them you had plans already, or even come after they got home."

"Covered in flour and exhausted from baking all afternoon? No thanks." Marinette chuckled. "I was happy to slink back to campus and pour myself into bed. There will be other parties."

"Your loss, sugar. But I bet we could have found you a new man, since you gave Nathanael the axe." Marinette had dated Nathanael at the end of high school and the first year of University… But during the second year, with their classes being more difficult, diverging interests and less time together, Marinette had lost the connection she thought they were forging together and her affection for him had waned too far to rekindle. Not that it had been terribly blazing to begin with, unlike her feelings for a certain blonde.

After Adrien had gone off to a private high school on the other side of Paris, Marinette had tried to work up the courage to contact him and stay in touch, but had never managed to actually do it… So many unsent emails and letters… She hadn't seen him in person in over four years. Despite all that time apart, she still felt her heart flutter and tummy quiver when she saw his picture in a magazine. After all this time, she was sure he must have forgotten her and their time together for one year of middle school.

When Nathanael had asked her out their senior year of high school, she had tried to set that childish infatuation for Adrien Agreste aside for good. To a degree she had succeeded, but she still wondered if her break-up with Nathanael this past summer hadn't been entirely her fault. Nathanael was wonderful, kind and sensitive, genuine and loving…. But she had felt no passion for him. Their relationship had been tentative and slow, and it had slowly petered off for her. Sometimes that made her feel like a horrible person. She never really felt she could bring him close and into her full confidence; because of her secret life as a superhero she had always kept him at arm's length.

Well… At this point it couldn't be helped. Her relationship with Nathanael had ended sadly and a little bitterly. But after all this time, four years at separate schools and never communicating, she still burned for Adrien. But he wasn't really part of her life anymore, unfortunately.

"I don't think I'm much of a party-er." Marinette admitted.

"You just haven't found the right crowd." Claudia dismissed. She was very insistent that Marinette should have a social life despite (or perhaps because of) her recent-ish break-up. "You stick with Mama-Claudia, I'll find you a man. Hey, my big brother is still single!"

Other people were filing into class and Marinette exchanged some polite greetings with her diverse classmates. This was a pretty basic art class, Figure Drawing 101; lots of different majors could select it as an Arts elective, or just something fun to do for credits. "Claudia, I don't want to date right now. I'm just not ready!" ' _Not to mention I'm too busy with university, my internship and being a superhero of Paris!'_

"Alright Mari, you tell me when you change your mind." She eyed Marinette around the side of her easel. "Curt did say he thought you were hot when I showed him your picture. He'll still be willing in a few weeks."

Marinette just laughed. "Okay, if I change my mind I'll let you know. Now quit harassing me!"

They continued to make small talk while their classmates trickled in and began setting up. The teacher was busy sliding a platform across the floor of the studio and carefully placing a chair on it before draping it in white fabric. She was also making adjustments to the lights and checking messages on her phone.

Eventually everyone was set and class was ready to begin. Madame Fortier stepped up onto the platform she'd been assembling and pivoted to address the whole class spread in a semi circle around her. "Good morning, everyone! A couple of announcements to begin the day: The fantasy formal pieces are due in three weeks time. Remember for that assignment that you are expected to take something real as a reference and give it a supernatural spin. You can use any medium you wish, but so far we've only covered charcoal, cray-pas, and pencils. If you want to bring in another drawing medium you're comfortable with, please feel free to do so. Secondly, I'm afraid that Monsieur Picard, the model we had scheduled for his week, had to cancel," Marinette was momentarily disappointed by this. Monsieur Picard was an older gentleman who'd been their model most of last week and he had been a former athlete. He'd made a very interesting subject to draw.

"He's very sorry to disappoint, but his daughter just had a baby and he and his wife are taking a vacation to visit them. Lastly, we have a very rare opportunity presented to us!" Madame Fortier, who was a seasoned artist and at least 70 years old, blushed slightly and clasped her hands in delight. "When I contacted the model agency we usually book through, they had someone available who had asked to do some volunteer work on the side of his professional modeling career! You've had a range of models so far this term, from young women to old men and a few in between, but we haven't worked with a young male model yet, so I'm very excited for all of you to draw this subject. Take a few minutes to make sure you have all your materials ready, and I'll go get him!" With surprising spryness for an over-weight older woman, Madame Fortier hopped down off the platform and scurried out of the studio into a side office.

Marinette was pleased to have a chance to draw a young male figure. It was a genre of clothing she still struggled with as most of her designs in middle and high school had been made with herself in mind, in other words young thin women. Being better able to capture male figures would greatly improve her rendering of more diverse designs for her internship.

She was looking down, tying the belt of her black smock around her waist, when Claudia whistled lowly and put a hand on her forearm. "Oh damn…" she whispered.

Surprised, Marinette looked up at her friend. "What? What's wrong?"

Claudia didn't reply, her eyes focused across the room.

Marinette followed her gaze and felt her mouth slowly fall open.

Across the room, illuminated by a pool of artistically cast light, his feet shod in soft leather slippers, calves bare and body wrapped in a knee length cotton waffle knit robe, golden hair shining and kind green eyes focused on the art instructor, stood her long lost love Adrien Agreste.

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-oOo-

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 _Author's Note: Updated 9/8/2018... Correcting Typos: no major changes._


	2. Illumination and Shadow

**Chapter 2: Illumination and Shadow**

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-oOo-

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Marinette couldn't believe her eyes. Her precious, kind, gentle, beautiful, unattainable Adrien was standing in the same room with her at this very moment… and his hands were fiddling absently with the belt of his robe as Madame Fortier was delivering her instructions to him.

Those perfect, long-fingered, large hands were toying with the length of cloth concealing his god-like body from view… A body that, given the nature of this art class and their course work, was certainly completely naked under that thin layer of white cotton knit…

 _'This can't be happening.'_ Marinette thought, panicking but unable to tear her eyes away. _'There's just no way my luck can be this strange.'_

She realized that M. Fortier was addressing the class again. "—lucky to have a professional fashion and fitness model pose for us today. You may recognize him, but if not this is Monsieur Adrien Agreste. We'll start with several 5 minute poses, then a few 20 minute poses. For the short poses don't worry too much about detail, just focus on capturing the whole figure. On the 20 minutes poses, I do want you to focus on getting down as much detail as possible."

The class murmured in understanding.

Marinette shook her head in distress as the instructor continued talking. "I can't do this." She whimpered.

Claudia placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong, Mari? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

She felt light-headed and knew her face must be pale as snow. She carefully moved her stool and eased herself onto it so that Adrien was hidden from her view… and she from his. Claudia watched, her expression growing more concerned. "I- I, ah… I know him." Marinette whispered.

Claudia's eyebrows rose. "You? Know international beef-cake, male supermodel, multi-millionaire, sexpot Adrien Agreste, the son of our ultimate boss?" She snorted. "How?"

Marinette could feel her cheeks and ears beginning to burn. "We went to middle school together. I know I've mentioned it to you before!" She replied faintly.

"I just thought you were boasting." Claudia chuckled. "I didn't think you actually knew the guy."

Marinette frowned at her laughter. "It's true! I did. We were even friends… kind of. But I haven't seen or talked to him in years." Feeling a little sick, she whispered. "I… I had the most ridiculously huge crush on him."

Claudia smiled at her confession. "Honey, if he was even half as good looking as he is now when he was a kid, I don't blame you." She grinned as Marinette's blushing intensified. "And given that you're still so worked up over him, I don't think you should be using past tense."

Marinette's head swiveled violently in denial. "I can't do this activity, not with him as the model."

"Mari, you can't skip out on this class just because it makes you a little uncomfortable. You knew this was a figure drawing class that would have nude models when you signed up for it." Claudia reasoned.

"I never knew I was going to have to draw the guy I was obsessively in love with when I was a teenager!" Marinette hissed, then clapped a hand over her mouth in horror.

Claudia's eye roll was amused but not unkind. "You can't skip." The black girl reiterated. "You're already here and set up. You can't just leave. This is a good opportunity for you to further your career…" Her voice became soothing, almost faintly hypnotic, and Marinette felt herself relaxing a little. A very little. "He's just another model, this is just another day in class. Focus on the art, on the lines."

Marinette nodded slightly. "Focus on the art. Focus on the lines. It's just another model…" _'I can do this. I can do this.'_ She picked up a length of charcoal and turned to the pad of news print balanced on her easel, carefully scootching her stool over slightly so she could see the platform in the center of the room. Her timing was debatably perfect.

Adrien… No, **The Model** had just tugged his belt loose and dropped his robe to the crooks of his elbows, revealing a broad and smoothly golden tanned muscular but not too bulky back and shoulders, before shrugging it off into one hand and setting it aside on a waiting chair.

Adri –, **No! The Model** was completely nude, and she watched as he crossed the floor and stepped up onto the illuminated platform. Marinette tried her hardest to keep her thoughts distant from what she was watching.

This was normal class.

This was just another model.

She was drawing.

She could do this.

She… was really thankful she was still seated… She was positive her legs wouldn't bear her weight right now.

Ad – **The model (** **dammit!** **)** had assumed a standing pose, hips mercifully angled away from her. His body twisted slightly to the left and his right hand pushed into his golden hair, his left arm held slightly out and away from his torso down by his side so the muscles stood out for easy definition. He shifted his right foot back and it caused the surprisingly thick muscles in his thighs to jump up and set in sharp relief under the lights streaming down on him. The plump roundness of his glutes suddenly dimpled deeply at the sides as he clenched those muscles too.

Marinette released a shaky breath and wetted her lips with a nervous tongue. "Oh dear god." She breathed. Beside her, Claudia huffed an almost silent laugh.

He tested this pose, adjusting slightly until he was happy with his balance, and nodded once.

Madame Fortier tapped the screen of her phone to set a timer. "You have five minutes. Begin."

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-oOo-

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Adrien had been dubious about doing volunteer modeling work for the agency his father had him set up with for non-Agreste Brand modeling gigs, but signed up for it anyway. Volunteer work looked good to the press, Nathalie had pointed out and Gabriel had agreed. He had no objections to volunteer work; in fact he strongly believed that those with the means, time, ability, and skills should give to those without. Art modeling was new for him though.

The agency had contacted him yesterday evening, stating that the local university was in need of a male model for an art class the next day. They had tried all their usual sources and come up dry: with Paris Fashion Week starting in just over three weeks, all the models were booked up or just plain unavailable. In desperation the agency had reached out regarding his volunteer request. It was going to wreck havoc on his schedule, but the woman that had called him sounded truly panicked.

They explained that it was a figure drawing class so the modeling would have to be done in the nude, and Adrien had pondered that before agreeing. His terms and contracts stated that he could never appear in anything crude or explicit; even so, he would never want to appear in anything inappropriate, but he had modeled swim wear and underwear before… How different could nude modeling for an art class really be?

He'd read up on the topic, making sure it was something he would be comfortable with, watched a couple informational videos on YouTube and on the university's website regarding the class and its subject matter, before deciding that he had no objections. Art was something beautiful, something that should be encouraged and nurtured. If he could donate his time to such a noble cause, despite his already insanely busy schedule, he felt it would be well worth it.

Plagg had been skeptical, though. "Nude modeling?"

"It's nothing weird." Adrien had defended that morning as he was packing a bag with items he would need for the class.

The black cat kwami had snorted at that. "Of course it's nothing weird, people have been posing nude for artists for thousands of years. I remember in the renaissance of Italy, one of my kittens was an assistant for Michelangelo. He spent hours, days even, making sketches to assist his master with paintings and sculptures."

"You knew the Michelangelo?" Adrien had gazed at his kwami in awe.

Plagg shrugged. "I never talked with him; secret magical god of destruction, and all that… But some of his work was pretty alright. You just don't strike me as the type to do this."

Adrien shook his head and chuckled at the floating god's nonchalance. Calling the works of Michelanglo 'pretty alright' was hardly an accurate statement. "So yeah, I've never posed nude before, but it'll be a new experience. I like doing new things and giving back to the community."

The art instructor was a very nice older lady who was thrilled that he arrived so early for the class. They took the time to talk and she answered all his questions about what was needed and expected of him, not minding at all that he needed some additional instruction as a first-timer. She also thanked him profusely for doing this as a volunteer: most art models charged an hourly rate, and the university appreciated his generosity, because they could certainly never afford to pay him what his time was truly worth, as a professional and quite famous fashion and fitness model. Adrien assured her that he was very happy he could do this, and how strongly he believed classical art like this was an important part of modern culture. She was thrilled to hear him say so.

A few minutes before the class was to begin she ducked out to allow him to change. Adrien exchanged his clothes and shoes for a light bathrobe and slippers. Plagg he left in the room with a piece of Jarlsberg and strict (pleaded) instructions to stay put and not get into mischief.

M. Fortier greeted him in the hall and escorted him to the art studio, where his nose began to twitch…

Because of his now five years of experience as the masked superhero Chat Noir and all the time he spent in his magically granted guise, Adrien had developed some strong cat-like abilities and traits. He was incredibly graceful, had perfect balance, adored getting massages and having his air brushed. But also his vision had improved quite a bit and his sense of smell was now inhumanly acute. This had led to some compromises with Plagg and the laid-back kwami's love of very ripe aromatic cheeses, hence the Jarlsberg today. The strong cheeses were just too much for Adrien to handle any more, they actually made him nauseous. Plagg could have his beloved over-ripe Camembert only when Adrien wasn't in the near vicinity.

The sense of smell was by far his strongest cat-trait. It had taken some adjusting to, and he could no longer stand to wear or be near people who wore too much perfume or cologne. Chloe had argued with him about that for weeks after their engagement: she always wore too much perfume, and it gave him a horrible headache every time. It was worst after he hadn't seen her for a few days. Small amounts weren't so bad, he could handle that, but she smelled like she'd bathed in the stuff…

It surprised him that, as he stepped through the door into the art studio, he was hit with a tantalizingly sweet and vaguely familiar scent: It was soft and delicate over the earthier notes of charcoal and paper that filled this whole building. He wished he could curl up in a pool of sunshine on a blanket drenched in this warm, gentle aroma. _'Good Lord, what can that be? It smells phenomenal!'_

He listened to all that Madame Fortier was saying to him and to the class, making polite acknowledgements when it was expected and noting her directions to him, but the greatest part of his mind was occupied with figuring this scent out. _'It's familiar, but I can't place it… Like something from childhood.'_ He recalled that one of his psychology courses in University had alleged that scent is the sense most strongly tied with memory. He tried to chase the familiarity back into his memories while he waited for the instructor to give him the go-ahead to begin.

 _'An open place? No… Somewhere enclosed but relatively large. Not home; this smell is nothing like anything I ever smelled at the mansion. School maybe? Not high-school, that's wrong… Middle school?'_ He thought about his first year of middle school fondly. He had learned so much from so many interesting people, some of whom he still kept in touch with. Nino was still his best friend, and they had occasionally gotten together for lunch or coffee before Nino and Alya had left last year to study abroad in New York City. _'Yes, middle school. A place? Maybe…'_ His mind supplied a foggy memory of his first ever homeroom, riser-style seating and two person tables and benches.

Madame Fortier asked if he was ready to begin. Adrien agreed and moved to the chair at the side of the room away from the artists' easels. He toed off his slippers, edging them under the chair, and untied the belt of his robe, then allowed it to drop off his shoulders.

A moment later he almost felt like he'd been sucker punched: that magnificent aroma had changed pitch suddenly. It went from soft, gentle, delicate to gaining notes of warm, fruity sweetness like a perfectly ripe peach. It was exquisite and undeniably feminine.

He nearly dropped the robe on the floor it was so distracting. _'Holy shit! What is this?'_ Carefully he crossed the floor and struck a pose upon the platform. As he set his joints and muscles in that specific fashion that would allow him to maintain the posture for a longer period of time, he indicated when he was ready.

Madame Fortier said, "You have five minutes. Begin."

Adrien had held poses before, it required none of his attention. He drifted through memories of middle school trying to place this scent that was so amazing. _'A kind voice, but awkward… Stuttering… Tension. Discomfort? A girl I knew… but not well. Bread and cloth and pencil shavings… Dark hair. Brown? No, black. So black it was almost blue… And blue eyes.'_

The alarm on Madame Fortier's phone sounded. Five minutes had passed. Adrien released his pose and turned to the chair that was on the platform draped in white sheets. As he did so his body turned in a different direction and he couldn't help but stumble as he was aware of that scent swelling and deepening. He caught himself and carefully reclined into the chair, crossing an ankle over the opposite knee and praying that he could control the semi stirring to life despite his embarrassment and that heavenly, rich, sweet, now musky aroma. _'Oh god, get a hold of yourself Agreste! This is indecent!'_ He steepled his hands over his chest and nodded to Madame Fortier again, and she restarted the timer for five minutes. He used every model's thought trick he knew to force away his incipient erection before it could really get started.

Despite all of Chloe's urging and pleading and attempts at seduction, Adrien had successfully avoided sex so far. Chloe always pouted and complained when he turned her down, but she let it go until the next time she tried to wrap herself in bows and hide in his bed or corner him in closed off places with a low cut dress on...

Really, the truth was that he just didn't want to have sex with Chloe period, so he was putting it off like an undesirable chore. Not that she wasn't beautiful in her own way, but she absolutely reeked of harsh chemical smelling perfumes and deodorants, and her eyes were always so calculating and distant it sometimes made him uneasy. She also threw herself at him too hard and too often, and it was honestly pretty obnoxious.

He'd proposed to Chloe because she had basically demanded it after several months of dating, and her father and his own father had essentially arranged it. He was still fond of her to a degree, she was his oldest friend, but in reality his heart still belonged to Ladybug.

But even after five years of partnership with her, of fighting monsters and crime and trusting each other with their lives… Five years of pining for her from the very depths of his soul, and still she did not want to reveal their identities to each other. It was agony… He had largely given up hope of ever bringing Ladybug around to be receptive of his affections.

Meanwhile his father had been pressuring him to date and settle down, get married, start a family, pass on the Agreste name. _'Ridiculous! I'm 20 years old, I have so much time to do all that stuff. What about seeing the world? Finishing University? And then there's the fact that I'm a freaking superhero.'_

Displeased by the direction of his thoughts and mood, but happy the semi had passed, the next time the instructor's phone alarm went off, Adrien stood again and faced the area of the room that had the most easels to kneel with one knee on the floor, crossing both arms over the raised knee and lifted his head with the intention of staring at the rear wall of the classroom. His eyes were focused past a young woman with dark hair and when she looked up at him to reference for her drawing he noticed she had lovely blue eyes.

 _'Midnight black hair… Bright, China Blue eyes… I remember her always wearing cute pigtails so similar to M'Lady's… And that awkward awkward stuttering…'_ Suddenly he realized both why that scent had been so familiar and so hard to recall. He'd sat in front of her for a whole school year, taking her scent in with every breath, and then not seen her since.

The next time she glanced up he was already looking at her so their eyes met. Her scent, for he now realized it came from her, intensified and ripened as the blush on her face grew darker. Adrien found his ears burning too, in response. She looked away and focused on her drawing, squirming slightly on her stool. Adrien returned his gaze to the rear wall.

 _'Marinette Dupain-Cheng.'_ Her name swam up from the depths with some of his fondest memories from that first year of public school. The Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament they had trained for together, the silly movie they had made for a class project, the design competition she'd won… And the times he'd worked with her as his superhero alter-ego.

 _'Of course the next time we meet after four years I'm buck naked and she's scrutinizing me for the sake of art…'_ He thought in embarrassment. With small glances he tried to inspect her face, keeping them short to minimize the likelihood of awkwardness from their eyes connecting again. _'Oh, she was always such a nervous wreck around me! Gosh, I hope that's over with. I'm sure my being naked in front of her isn't going to help that much, not that her stuttering wasn't kinda cute, sometimes, but it also got a little tiresome.'_

His eyes drifted over her face while she worked, cataloging the changes in the past four years. It looked like she might be taller, but it was impossible to say for sure while she was perched on her stool. Her face was more mature and perhaps a little thinner, just from more years of growth. She still had pale skin and some adorable freckles scattered over her cheeks and her little button nose. He couldn't tell much else, her hair was covered by a bandana and she was wearing a dark smock to protect her clothes from staining, but she looked even prettier than he remembered her.

 _'Why didn't we stay in touch?'_ He wondered. They hadn't been very close, but her best friend had been dating his best friend, heck Nino and Alya were still together and had just recently returned from New York! _'She was one of my first friends. We should rekindle that!'_ Mind made up, he resolved to ask her out to catch up at her earliest convenience.

The alarm sounded again. "This is the last five minute pose." Madame Fortier announced.

 _'But first, we both have to survive the next hour and a half of me flashing her.'_ Adrien grimaced. To save them both as much embarrassment as possible, he twisted slowly and dropped into a reclining pose facing away from Marinette, carefully not waving his bait and tackle in her direction. Left knee up and left arm draped indolently over it, right elbow on the ground and head relaxed backward, he closed his eyes.

For the rest of the 90 minute long class he entertained himself by very adamantly NOT facing Marinette directly. He worried momentarily that this might make her grades and her art suffer, but ultimately decided it was in the best interests for both of them… and by contemplating the nuances of her scent.

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Author's Note: Updated 7/14/2018


	3. Breaking Bread

**Chapter 3: Breaking Bread**

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-oOo-

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Marinette set her pencil down after class and felt exhausted. She knew the image of Adrien's… (sigh) **The Model's** perfect naked body would be seared into her mind for her whole life, like a branding iron on her long term memory. She couldn't decide yet whether this was good or bad… _'I suppose it will depend on how many wet dreams this gives me.'_ But then, would more or less be better? She didn't know. _'Okay, maybe it will depend on how much sleep I lose.'_ She already lost so much due to the internship, the hero-work and her university course work.

"I need a vacation." She muttered.

Claudia snickered, but not meanly. "You doing alright after all that, Honey?"

"I can't decide." Marinette confessed. She started putting all her supplies away, hands shaking.

After a few minutes of quietly packing their things, Claudia spoke again. "Mari, I know you're wiped but you'd better tap your reserves, because Adrien on his way over here."

Marinette glanced up and noticed that Adrien was headed her way. It was safe to think his name again, because he'd ducked out of the studio swiftly and was now fully clothed. "Heaven help me." She whispered.

"Relax, you'll be alright." Claudia soothed.

When Adrien had met her gaze during his third pose Marinette knew any hope of anonymity was lost: his eyes had definitely gleamed in recognition. She also noticed the subtle pink blush that splashed high on his sculpted cheekbones, a blush that was still in place now, as he crossed the room toward her.

Her gaze flickered down his body against her will, noting his black leather loafers, charcoal business slacks that were just tight enough to cling appealingly to his thighs and hips without being too scandalous, and the dark plum button-up that was also the perfect fit to his torso, two buttons undone at his neck and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Those startlingly green eyes of his really popped against the muted jewel tone of his shirt. When he smiled at her, she felt her stomach turn over in the most pleasant way. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, it is you!"

She couldn't help but smile back, despite her traitorous blush and quivering belly. "H- Hi Adrien. It's good to see you." She bit her tongue to keep from babbling.

"Yes, you too!" His voice was deeper now than when they were younger, warm and pleasant and surprisingly familiar despite the years since they'd spoken last. "It's been way too long, we haven't talked since middle school." He looked suddenly a little bashful. "Hey, what are you doing now? Do you want to catch up over some lunch?"

She could hardly believe her ears. Middle-school her would be squealing and foaming at the mouth or fainted dead away by now. She was never so relieved that she'd mellowed out somewhat over the years. "I have a break in my day before I have to be at work at noon. I- I would love to catch up with you!"

"Great! I know a really nice café not far from here."

God, she would swear his face shone like the sun when he smiled. "That sounds perfect. Though, I do need to drop my art supplies off at my apartment, if that's okay."

"Of course!" he nodded agreeably. "Here, let me carry something for you." He reached for the portfolio bag leaning against the easel.

"Oh, gosh, you don't have to do that!" She waived her hands at him.

He laughed, and her tummy quivered again at the sound. "It's no trouble." He grasped the handle of the portfolio and effortlessly slung the strap over his shoulder.

Marinette smiled and shook her head. "Alright, thank you. I'll go hang up my smock and be back in a sec."

Claudia followed her across the room toward the rows of pegs on the wall with aprons and smocks. "I didn't think it could be possible, but I think he might actually be just as nice as he is hot." She commented.

Marinette giggled, feeling a little giddy. "No, no… He's even better than that. He's kind and- and generous and very intelligent." She leaned in to whisper in Claudia's ear. "I didn't fall in love with his pretty face all those years ago. I fell in love with his heart."

Claudia eyed her seriously while she tugged the bandana off her hair and hung the smock from a hook. "You've got it bad." Marinette checked the mirror on the wall to fix her hair, tightening her pigtails and smoothing loose fly-aways, then straightened her clothes as best she could. She wished she'd put on some makeup and a trendier outfit this morning: only anticipating art class, she'd thrown on an old pair of out of fashion jeans and a Jagged Stone t-shirt that she didn't care if she ruined. _'Well, I have to change to go to work anyway.'_ She would pick something cute and slap on a little makeup when they stopped at her apartment.

Claudia grabbed her wrist before she could return to Adrien. Marinette paused at the serious look on her friend's face. "I know you're excited to see him again, and all those old feelings are coming back… But…" She hesitated. "Isn't he engaged? To the Mayor's daughter? I think I remember your friend Alya ranting about that."

At that reminder, the bottom dropped out of Marinette's stomach and all the butterflies that had been building up from seeing Adrien again suddenly turned to stones.

.

-oOo-

.

Adrien blinked as Marinette returned across the room to walk out with him. Her scent had changed again, and now it was cooler and more distant, all the musky, rich and ripe notes had vanished. Her face was paler too. "Everything okay?"

She slung her backpack across her back and picked up her box of materials, and smiled at him. "Of course. My apartment isn't far, follow me."

Though her tone was cheery and her smile was there, it didn't seem to reach her eyes any more. Puzzled at the sudden change, Adrien could only follow her as they set off. They made some small talk for a few minutes as they walked, but she wasn't kidding when she said she didn't live far. The arts buildings were on the edge of campus and they only walked three blocks before she turned and opened the door of a six storey apartment building with a jingle of keys. The building was older and the floors warped, and he could smell wax on the dark wood floors and the mustiness of the brick walls. She led him across the lobby to a bank of elevators and pushed the worn button for the top floor.

"Normally I take the stairs, but with all this stuff the elevator is so much easier." She explained. As they had walked she seemed to loosen up a little again. He asked her about classes she was taking, and explained a few of the business and science courses he was in while they waited for the lift.

On the sixth floor she led him down to the end of the narrow hall and jingled her keys again to let them into her apartment. It was small but very open: the exterior door let into a hallway with a console table and mirror to the left and a pocket door leading to a bathroom with an old fashioned claw-foot tub on the right. He closed the door to the hall behind him and discovered a coat tree tucked behind it, positively heaped with coats in all different colors and styles.

As she moved down the hall and into the main room of the apartment, Adrien took a moment to close his eyes and take a deep breath of the air that was saturated in her scent. It was warm and sweet and so incredibly inviting. He wanted little more in that moment than to spend time in this space, breathing the concentrated aroma. Confused by his own reactions, Adrien rubbed at the back of his neck and cleared the odd pinching sensation in his throat before speaking.

"Do you still design and make clothes?" he asked to keep the conversation going while she moved around and unburdened them of all her art supplies. If his voice sounded slightly rough, she didn't seem to notice.

"Oh yes! My major is fashion design." She wedged her portfolio behind a desk at the end of the hall where the room opened up. "Don't lurk in the dark, c'mon in! Find a seat."

Adrien drifted down the hall tentatively, taking in the space while Marinette dashed up the stairs to the loft. At the end of the hall to the left was a desk space that occupied two walls and it was covered in scraps of paper and fabric, two different sewing machines, tools he couldn't even guess the purpose of, a bare dress-maker's form, and the back splash was a collage of magazine clippings and sketches. At the far end was a narrow set of stairs that must lead up to a sleeping loft, because there was no bed on the main floor. The whole far wall was two stories high and covered in a bank of windows, including a door leading out onto a balcony covered in potted plants. In the far right corner stood a worn looking couch and a comfortable oversized chair facing a low table and a small flat screen TV. On the wall behind the TV were hooks and shelves filled with more plants and flowers creating a living tapestry of color and texture. At his right, next to the bathroom was a very small kitchen, with a stove and fridge against the wall, and an island with a sink set into it.

Everything was densely packed into the space, but laid out in a logical manner and clean (with the exception of her workspace beneath the loft).

"Sorry about the mess." Her voice floated down from the loft where he caught the rustling of fabric and the soft squeak of floor boards as she moved about. "I have a big project coming up for one of my classes, and work has been really demanding of my time."

"Marinette, your apartment is really nice! It's not messy at all." Adrien exclaimed, staring in amazement at the wall of greenery.

After a few minutes which Adrien spent examining the curious mass of vegetation and enjoying the sounds of her murmuring to herself softly, she jogged back down her stairs and his eyes followed her descent. She'd changed from her worn out but practical blue jeans and t-shirt into a pair of tight black skinny cut business slacks that showed off her long slender legs. Her blouse was a unique style, a little long in the torso and made from a pale green material that clung to her body just enough to be enticing and fluttered around her hips, with a scalloped neckline that didn't show too much cleavage and a wide cream ribbon gathering it beneath her bust in a flirty bow. She had redone her hair into a rolled bun and clipped her bangs away from her eyes with some pins adorned with tiny pearls, and carried a pair of lethal looking cream colored heels in one hand. Her face looked freshly made up, with a hint of pearlescent eye shadow and tasteful mascara. A shine of gloss on her lips and a dark green cross-body purse made of brocaded Chinese silk completed the look.

 _'Prettier than I remembered?'_ He recalled his stray thought from earlier incredulously. _'She looks like she stepped out of one of our fashion magazines!'_

"I hope you don't mind that I took the time to change and put on some war-paint." She gestured to her face jokingly. "I have to head straight to work after we have lunch."

"Of course not, I don't mind at all." He assured her. "Did you design what you have on?"

"Just the blouse." She smiled, setting her heels down and stepping into them. She crossed the space into the kitchen, and Adrien covertly examined her legs as the addition of heels had changed her gait so she swayed more in the hips and gave her calves and rear a fascinating new emphasis. "The rest is store bought. Oh, the purse I did make, but it's not my design." She threw a few things in her purse from the pantry then grabbed her keys from the table, turning to face him with a bright smile. "Shall we?"

"Yes, by all means." He gestured her to precede him.

He followed her out of the apartment, careful of how closely he allowed himself to stare at her swaying hips as they exited the building and walked together down the sidewalk. _'I'm engaged, I shouldn't be gawking at my friend from middle school! I'm in love with Ladybug who doesn't take me seriously and keeps me at arm's length, but engaged to my childhood friend whom I don't love romantically, or… let's be honest… even like all that much most of the time… Now I'm eyeing Marinette? Ugh, what is wrong with me?'_ Troubled by his perceived fickleness, Adrien tried to keep his brain on the conversation.

He guided them a few more blocks toward Agreste Fashions, enjoying the friendly small talk. She wasn't stuttering the way she used to when they were kids, and he was glad she had more confidence or successful speech therapy, or whatever had helped her. But he almost missed it a little, because it had been kinda cute when it wasn't debilitating.

As they stepped into the restaurant Adrien held the door open for her. He noticed someone across the street with a camera aimed his way but didn't think much of it: he was pretty used to being followed around by paparazzi, and with all the events surrounding Fashion Week, this next month would be worse than most for Paparazzi following him around. This fellow was at least being polite enough to keep some distance. He stepped inside after Marinette and didn't give the photographer any further consideration.

.

-oOo-

.

The maître d' recognized Adrien on sight. "Ah, Monsieur Agreste, a pleasure to see you today."

"Bon jour, Francois." He replied genially.

"It doesn't appear we were expecting you this morning." The maître d' commented after consulting the sleek tablet computer on the host's stand.

"Sorry for the short notice, I bumped into an old friend and we spontaneously decided to get lunch. Can you fit us in?" The restaurant was mostly empty at this time of day, but it was polite to ask.

The maître d' glanced at Marinette when Adrien said the word 'friend', and she smiled politely, if somewhat nervously if her grasp on the strap of her purse was any indication. "Of course, Monsieur Agreste. Please, this way." He snagged two menus and escorted them upstairs to a table next to the window. The maître d' pulled out the chair for Marinette who softly murmured her thanks.

After he'd left them, Marinette glanced around taking in the crystal chandeliers, real flowers and cloth napkins and looked down at her lap. "This place is lovely. When you said 'café' though, I was expecting something a little more casual. I feel horribly underdressed…"

"No way, you look fantastic!" Adrien assured her. "They hardly enforce the dress code here, and then only during dinner hours. We're fine."

"But, ah-" She blushed as she looked at him across the table, nervously clenching her fingers together. "Isn't a restaurant like this awfully expensive?" She glanced at the menu but there weren't many actual prices listed.

"It's not too bad," he explained, wondering at her apparent discomfort. "And the food here is really excellent."

Abruptly her lips pursed in a frustrated pout and her scent became slightly prickly in his nose. He realized suddenly what had made her unhappy. "This is my treat, Marinette." She blinked and him in surprise, prickly scent fading and instead growing softer and sweeter. "I invited you out, I'm happy to treat you to lunch. We're old friends, and I really want this chance to catch up. Please…" he pleaded. "Let me treat you? Order anything you want."

She blushed again then, but it wasn't like her middle school blushes or even this morning, sudden and heavy and fierce. It was a gentle blossoming of delicate color in her cheeks as her lips pulled up in a small smile.

Finally she conceded, lips quirking playfully as she plucked the menu from the edge of the table. "Alright, but only because you insist."

Relieved, Adrien grinned at her slightly.

"But I will be paying you back." Before he could do more than draw a breath to object, she continued. "Not with money, but… somehow. I'll make something for you, or you can come over to my place for dinner and games."

He realized she would never back down about this. _'Was she always this stubborn?'_ "Alright, I can live with that." he conceded.

"I was surprised you offered to catch up now." Marinette confessed as she perused the menu more seriously. "You must be awfully busy with Fashion Week coming up."

"I am ridiculously busy, but it can all wait." Adrien felt good when she smiled at him. "Catching up with a friend is more important than drafting a newsletter or sitting through another meeting that should have been an email."

Their waiter came around to take their orders. Adrien ordered a bottle of sparkling mineral water for them to share, as it was too early in the day for wine, and an entrée of swordfish poached in spiced broth, served over a wild mushroom risotto and topped with dressed micro greens. Marinette ordered a house salad with grilled shrimp. He eyed her teasingly as the waiter walked away, wondering if she deliberately tried to order something inexpensive by getting a salad, but she returned his gaze levelly and with too much innocence, one eyebrow quirked as if in challenge.

He did miss her cute stuttering… but this calmer, more confident Marinette was very… appealing. "So, tell me about high school. What was it like for you?"

She shrugged. "It was high school. It was like middle school, but more difficult. And you? How was your high school experience, going to a fancy private school?"

"Eh, it was probably just like public high school, but more judge-y." She chuckled. "I went pretty far with my fencing, competed nationally a few times, and internationally once. I was briefly considered for the Olympic Fencing team, but my father decided he wanted me to focus more on learning the family business."

"The Olympics, really?" She looked a little star-struck, and that made him feel good. "That's amazing! I mean, I knew you were amazing, but that's really amazing!"

Suddenly bashful, he changed the topic as the waiter returned with their mineral water and two small glasses of ice. "You mentioned that you have to head to work after this. Where are you working?" Adrien poured for them while Marinette responded.

"Oh. You lead us over here, so I thought you must know…" She trailed off looking at him, but he shook his head in denial. "I, ah… I actually am an intern at Agreste Fashions."

"No way!" He exclaimed. The design of the blouse she had on was gorgeous and he remembered other of her designs from middle school being excellent as well. He was excited to find that someone so talented was already in his employ. _'Well, I guess technically my father's employ.'_

"Yes, I was really excited to get the opportunity to learn so much at such a famous company. It…" She hesitated, debating, then picked up her sparkling water and sipped it. "Well, it's an internship so it doesn't pay much, but it helps out when my scholarships are a little lean, and I am learning a lot."

She continued speaking lightly, but Adrien frowned. He remembered her previous outfit, how ragged the hems of her jeans had looked and that the shirt was very faded. He recalled how tiny her apartment was and that many of her things looked worn and in slight disrepair. _'I didn't realize before… Her university must be expensive and her parents are busy running a business, a successful one but maybe they can't pay her way through life the way my father can pay for me… Or, I for myself now that I'm working more. Is Marinette suffering financially?'_ Looking at her more closely, she even looked a little bit thin to him, her cheek bones a touch too pronounced, her shoulders and wrists a little too bony. There were dark circles under her eyes, not too severe and carefully concealed with well applied make-up, but there nonetheless. Suddenly very worried for her, Adrien wondered how to proceed. _'I can't just give her money, she would never accept it. And I would never want to embarrass her by trying to pay her way and insist on it because I think she's too poor.'_ He wasn't sure what to do with his suspicions, but decided the first thing would be to make sure she had an ample lunch.

Adrien twisted in his seat and flagged the waiter back over, adding a couple appetizers of salmon rillettes with croustini and caprese salad skewers with basil pesto to their lunch. "I'm really hungry after my gym session this morning." He commented after the waiter disappeared to modify their order. It was only a small lie: he had had a session with his personal trainer this morning and the fierce little man, who was a former mixed martial arts champion, had totally kicked his ass… That on top of the akuma battle last night with the victimized construction worker, meant that he could afford to eat as many calories as he wanted in spite of his much maligned 'model diet' as Nino joked about it. Being a grown man who was (mostly) in charge of his own life now, he was happy to say he could eat whatever the hell he wanted, and his father's moron dietitians be damned. Their calorie intake ratios for him were wrong anyway, because they couldn't account for the fact that, in addition to being a model and a very fit and healthy young man, he was also a magical superhero.

"Where were we?" He asked.

"My internship." She supplied helpfully.

"Yes, how are you liking that?" He reached for the bread basket that was just deposited on their table and the dish of herbed olive oil and tore off a chunk of bread to hand to her, scooting the oil dish between them.

She happily dunked a corner of her bread into the olive oil and enjoyed the bite before answering. She talked about her boss and co-workers and fashion trends she liked right now, and had moved on to talking about what had happened to their middle school classmates when their appetizers arrived. They tucked into those happily too, and polished off the chilled salmon dish and caprese skewers together. Marinette was mopping up the last traces of the pesto with a scrap of bread crust when Adrien's phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out to check, and winced at the number of texts he'd gotten from Chloe.

Marinette must have noticed his distraction, because she asked, "What is it? Something bad?"

How to explain, without bringing up Chloe's name? He knew they had basically hated each other in middle school. "Ah, just a stack of messages from my fiancée."

Marinette smiled but it was wan and Adrien thought maybe a tad forced. "How is Chloe?"

His lips pursed. _'Of course she knows exactly who I'm engaged to, she reads all those fashion and celebrity magazines for the style trends.'_ He sat back to allow the waiter to clear the appetizer dishes from the table. Once the man had gone again, he spoke. "Chloe is well. She's trying her hand at modeling too, now. It's going well for her."

"I did see that she's been in a few perfume adds." Marinette commented. "I'm glad she's being successful."

"Yeah." He agreed. The atmosphere was strange… Marinette's scent had wandered back into the cool and distant category and he was trying to decide what it meant. "It keeps her busy, and I think that's good for her. She finds ways to get into trouble when she has too much free time on her hands."

"Has she, ah-" she hesitated for a moment, sipping her water. Adrien refilled it when he noticed her glass was low. "Has she mellowed out at all?"

He chuckled. "Some." _'Interesting way to phrase the question "Is she any less of a pushy brat?"'_ "She can still be a little high-strung sometimes, but I think actually working has helped her see that not everyone's life is as easy as hers has been."

"That's good to hear."

Their entrées arrived and Adrien happily attacked his fish; this was another trait that had bled over from his superhero persona, his love of fish. When he was young he had hated fish, now he was happy to eat it for most meals. "How about you? I notice there's no ring on your finger. Are you still shopping the market?"

Marinette almost dropped her fork, it clattered loudly against her bowl of salad and she looked around covertly to see if anyone was staring at her clumsiness. Adrien smiled. _'There is still some of that awkward, clumsy girl left in this woman.'_ He didn't think to wonder why that made him happy.

"No, no ring, and no one in my life right now." Marinette kept her eyes on her salad, and he could see some pinkness to her cheeks. "I just got out of a long term relationship earlier this past summer, and I'm still kind of recovering from that."

"I'm sorry to have brought it up." He said softly. "Was it a bad break-up?"

She smiled somewhat wistfully and shook her head. "Not too bad, just painful and sad. Do you remember Nathanael?"

Adrien did remember the quiet artist and also his huge crush on Marinette. He nodded.

"That was him." She said sadly. "We dated for two and a half years."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up something painful." He wondered what had happened, but now was the wrong time to ask.

"It's alright," she smiled. She set her fork down. "Would you excuse me, please? I'm going to the ladies' room, I'll be right back."

"Of course." He rose when she did, another of his very old fashioned habits, and reseated himself as she walked away, hoping he really hadn't upset her.

He pulled his phone out to catch up on Chloe's heap of messages. They were all from this morning. Most were her asking his opinions on clothes, and when did he want to book their couples massage for this week, and could he believe the audacity of so-and-so for doing something that offended her. The most recent texts from the past half hour were increasingly demanding to where he was, why wasn't he responding, stop ignoring her.

Sighing and again regretting caving in to their fathers' insistence that they marry, Adrien tapped in the text field to reply.

.

.

Author's Note: Updated 7/14/2018


	4. An Important Business Meeting

**Chapter 4: An Important Business Meeting**

.

-oOo-

.

In the very nice, lavish bathroom Marinette was having a small meltdown.

"Oh my god," she squealed as quietly as possible. She flapped her hands and wriggled all over the place and jumped up and down. "OH MY GOD!"

She had locked the bathroom door behind her so she didn't need to worry about being walked in on, but she still had to keep her voice down to a whisper.

Tikki, who had finally awoken from her very long rest after last night's akuma, was looking at Marinette with her eyes even bigger than usual. She was almost a little worried for her chosen. She'd missed out on everything that happened prior to waking up in Marinette's purse about twenty minutes ago. But she'd heard all of the lunch conversation and couldn't take it anymore.

"Marinette!" Tikki said sternly, bonking into the over-excited young woman's forehead to get her attention.

"Ow!" The dark haired girl stopped flapping her hands like a crazy person in favor of rubbing her abused face.

"Did I hear things right?" Tikki demanded. "Are you having lunch with Adrien Agreste?!"

Marinette nodded furiously, squealing. She hurriedly recounted the morning's class, blushing profusely when she explained that he was the model for the art class ("Aren't the models for figure drawing naked?" Tikki had interrupted, to more blushing and squealing from her charge) and he had asked her out to lunch to catch up, the trip back to her apartment to change and the walk here and all the conversation she'd already heard.

"Oh Tikki, this is almost too good to be true." Marinette sighed like a love sick fool. Tikki felt exasperated to see her revert five years to the way she was when she first had her crush on the handsome blonde boy in her class, but Marinette's delight was somewhat tempered by realism now. "He's still just so perfect. He even apologized for bringing up Nathanael."

"He's engaged to Chloe." Tikki remembered both Marinette's period of mourning and from this lunch conversation.

"Ugh, I know!" Marinette immediately wilted, then blew a quiet raspberry in disgust. She splashed a little cold water on her hands and patted her neck and cheeks to calm down a bit. "I just can't understand why."

Tikki frowned. It really didn't make much sense to her either… She knew Adrien was Chat Noir (though of course she was unable to tell Marinette that) and that Chat Noir was hopelessly and completely in love with Ladybug. Not all Ladybugs and Chats became lovers, but Tikki was certain she understood this Chat's feelings for his Lady, and that he would become her lover in a heartbeat if she ever gave him even half a chance. Why would he ever propose to that horrible, demanding, cruel brat when his heart was already lost to another? Again, though, she was unable to share her thoughts with Marinette. All she could say was, "You'll have to spend more time with Adrien to find out."

"More time?" the girl parroted.

"Yes. Adrien has told you he wants to catch up." She tried to be encouraging while helping Marinette keep a level head. "You even work at his family's company! Make sure you get his phone number and see him again sometime soon." Even if he was in a relationship with Chloe, there was no reason Adrien and Marinette couldn't be friends again. Maybe she could even discover what the hell he was going engaged to that wretched Bourgeois girl. She wanted to pull Plagg's tail for ever letting that happen.

"Get his phone number?" Marinette looked at her own phone, considering that. She had had it in middle school, but it had changed since then… She nodded. "Sure. After all, I did tell him I would find a way to pay him back for lunch today. And we are old friends. Friends should have each other's phone number."

"Exactly!" Tikki agreed.

Marinette gripped her phone, mustering her courage to return to the table and her erstwhile love. She noticed that her notification light was blinking, and unlocked the screen to find a message from Alya asking what she was up to today.

Feeling mischievous and a little confident thanks to her success not being a stuttering, bumbling fool in front of Adrien, Marinette replied to that message.

 _QuiteContrary: Not too much. Morning class, having lunch with Adrien, then heading off to work._

She sent that off giggling, and left the restroom to finish her salad.

She only made it half way back before her phone buzzed again. She checked Alya's reply.

 _LoisLaneGotNothinOnMe: Yeah, right, tell us another one. Really, what are you up to?_

Marinette giggled as she approached the table. Adrien set his phone down on the table and made to stand up to greet her but she waived him back into his chair. "Would it be okay if I took a selfie of us together?"

"Sure!" He agreed immediately.

"Alya didn't believe me when I said we were having lunch." Marinette giggled again. She opened her camera and switched it to forward facing, then she moved over behind his chair and positioned her face near his shoulder so she and Adrien were in one half of the image and their table with their dishes was visible in the other half. "Smile!" She grinned and snapped the picture, showing it to Adrien who laughed approvingly, and then sending it off to Alya as proof.

She'd not even taken one bite of her salad before her phone started vibrating with texts one after the other. She and Adrien both laughed out loud and Marinette turned her phone over so the screen wasn't blinking at her while they finished eating. They kept the conversation light and general and at the end, Adrien insisted on getting a crème bruleé to share. Marinette was worried they were cutting it too close on time, but Adrien said he'd vouch for her and that they wouldn't argue with the son of the owner of the company.

"I don't want to take advantage of your friendship to get special perks on the job!" Marinette exclaimed. "That wouldn't be fair."

"Nonsense." Adrien insisted. He ordered the crème bruleé and a coffee for each of them, handing off his credit card at the same time to expedite their exit after dessert was done. "We are having a very important business meeting."

"We're old friends catching up over lunch, you said so yourself!" She exclaimed.

"We are also discussing fashion trends and career goals." He insisted playfully.

 _'Oh my god, is he flirting with me?'_ "We never discussed anything about car—"

He interrupted her. "Where do you see yourself in three months? In a year? Five years?" He grinned at her disbelieving shake of her head. "Tell me what your vision is for the MDC Brand."

"MDC?" she repeated, faintly.

"Your initials!" Obviously they were her initials; she knew that, they were hers. "A name for your brand. Do you not like it?"

On the contrary, it's exactly what she would label her clothes if she ever became successful enough to have her own brand in her own name. She'd been fantasizing about that for years. And limited addition pieces or pieces in the high-fashion category would simply bear her signature: Marinette.

She told him this. "Three months from now I'll be finishing my fifth semester of university and my internship will be ending. I'd like to land a permanent but flexible position within Agreste Fashions so I can continue working there alongside finishing up my degree. In one year, my degree will be complete and I'll have that permanent position. In five years I'll have my own office at my design studio where I'm in charge of my own brand label." She smiled at the vision of success and opened her eyes slowly, not having realized she'd closed them.

Adrien's face was a study. His smile was part pride, part wonder and part indulgence. He blinked as if returning from her vision too, and nodded encouragingly. "Let's see what we can do to make it all happen."

.

-oOo-

.

After dessert and coffee were cleared away (she mentally punched her immature inner 15-year-old for squealing about sharing dessert and indirect kisses and other ridiculous childish fangirling) Marinette leaned back in her chair a little and sighed, unobtrusively resting a hand on her slightly too full stomach. "Oh boy, that was really good. I don't think I've eaten so much in months."

Adrien finished signing the check and pocketed his credit card, while smiling at her. "We'll have to do this again sometime soon."

"Oh, yeah!" Marinette picked up her phone and unlocked it, ignoring the backlog of texts and missed calls from Alya for now in favor of opening a new contact. She held her phone out toward Adrien. "Would you punch in your number, please?"

He looked surprised for a second, and Marinette hesitated, suddenly afraid she had misread all his intentions. "Unless of course you don't want to give me your personal phone number! That's fine, of course, I can always just send you an email at work to get in touch with you that way. You probably don't hand your personal phone number out to just anyone. I didn't mean to presume!" She started to pull her phone back in embarrassment.

He snatched the phone out of her hand and started typing into the contact. There was a little stain of pink high on his cheek bones as he typed. "Of course I will give you my number." He sounded a little exasperated. "How many times do I have to say 'old friends' before you relax? Feel free to call or text any time, we can get coffee or see a movie or just talk."

Thrilled, she couldn't help but smile at him. "I'm so glad you were the model today for class."

He glanced at her, his lips pursed into a small "o" of surprise.

Embarrassed, she waved her hands at him, trying to find the right words. "Ah! I mean, without that we might never have reconnected, y'know?" She tucked her hands into her lap and nervously clenched her fingers together, digging deep inside herself for the courage to continue speaking honestly. "Well… Drawing you today was also nice. I needed experience drawing a young male figure, so I could be better with my designs. And—" her voice dropped to a whisper despite her attempts to keep it even. "You do have a beautiful figure."

She couldn't even look at him. _'Why did I say that to him! AWKWARD! He's going to change his mind and delete the contact, and never speak to me again!' She buried her burning face in her hands. 'I'll be fired from the internship for sexual harassment and he'll set the army after me, and I'll have to leave the country and move to an arctic island and survive on nothing but lichen and fish for the rest of my life!'_

"Thank you."

She peeked between her fingers. He was smiling and rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, and he actually seemed flattered. _'Not creeped out, but flattered?'_ "It's kind of you to say so. I do work at it really hard, but it's still nice to get a compliment."

She moaned at her own awkwardness. "You're welcome." Her voice was tiny, and she dropped her hands snatching her phone back when he offered it to her and stuffing it in her back pocket. "Okay, quick. Let's go to work before I'm so late I get fired on the spot and before I say anything else that makes me wish the ground would open up and swallow me."

He laughed, but followed her out of the restaurant.

.

.

Author's Note: Updated 7/14/2018


	5. Artistic Review

**Chapter 5: Artistic Review**

.

-oOo-

.

At six o'clock Marinette leaned back from her keyboard and rubbed her tense shoulders. After that unbelievable lunch, Adrien had actually escorted her all the way to her cubicle in the teen fashions division at Agreste Fashions, stopping with her by her boss's office to explain why she was a half hour late showing up for work. He apologized for keeping Marinette from her job, and pleaded they forgive his indiscretion.

Her boss was a plump woman in her early thirties, Abigail Foust. She'd been stunned to see one of the upper echelon executives and son the of the company's founder in her own office, talking about one of her employees.

"How do you know Adrien Agreste?!" She had demanded after Adrien had blessed her with one of his megawatt smiles and headed back toward the elevator lobby.

Marinette smiled, toeing the carpet with her heels. "We went to middle school together."

Abigail fanned her face, watching Adrien's retreating back with a faint blush. "Well… I can't hold it against you, taking an extended lunch… But please make up the time this week."

"Of course, I'll stay late this evening to be sure my work is completed." Marinette assured her. It wasn't Abigail that she worried about, but rather Abigail's boss, Monsieur Bredeateau, who was a very high-strung, goal-driven and stern businessman. He wasn't interested in fashion personally, rather he just happened to work at a fashion based company. He was demanding with his employees and had a reputation for being rather harsh with those who did not meet his standards.

After that it had been a haze of meetings and emails, along with some actual fashion design, which involved work on a line of bras and panties that she had been assigned. After five hours of that relentless onslaught she was pretty exhausted. Nothing sounded more appealing than a quick walk through the park on her way back to her apartment, followed by a glass of wine and a bath.

Her work on the lingerie line was important and would have a lot to do with whether she was offered a permanent position within the company. She had mock-ups at home that she was working on in her free time, not that she had much of that, but it was part of working for this company and she was happy to expend the extra effort.

She rose from her desk chair and grabbed her purse where Tikki was napping again, carefully shifting the slumbering goddess aside so she could grab the pair of cream colored flats from the bottom. The heels she'd worn out with Adrien were gorgeous, enough seasons out of fashion so they were now considered vintage, but they were also murder on the balls of her feet. She kicked them off and slid the flats on, sighing and gently stretching her calves.

Alya had occupied her whole 15 minute break with questions and demands about that picture. Marinette grinned impishly, thinking back on the conversation…

.

-oOo-

.

 _"Oh my GOD, Marinette! How the hell did this happen?!" Alya's voice was so loud it was distorted by the phone's speaker. Marinette had to tear the phone away from her ear and apologize to the other people in the break room as she turned the in-call volume way down. "How did you end up eating lunch with Adrien after all this time?!"_

 _She tried to keep her voice down, never mentioning the CEO and Founder's son's name because there were other people nearby who would recognize it instantly. "You know on Mondays I have figure drawing in the mornings, he was the model today. He recognized me and came up after class to ask if I wanted to catch up over lunch, so we did."_

 _"Girl, I am so proud of you!" Alya enthused. "Please tell me you were cool and you didn't become a stuttering wreck again."_

 _"I didn't, I was about as eloquent as I can be." Marinette assured her._

 _"Well that's great, Mari! What's he up to?"_

 _"Well, you're aware of where I work. We talked about that a lot. And you're aware of who he's engaged to…" She trailed off with an unhappy grimace. "We talked about that a little too."_

 _"Barf! I still can't believe that dunce ever proposed to Chloe." Alya did sound disgusted, and Marinette appreciated her indignation. "That stuck up, manipulative bitch couldn't possibly love him."_

 _"Who's to say?" Marinette sighed. "He said she's well and a little mellower than she was then. I have to believe they are in love, why else would they be engaged? Anything else doesn't make sense."_

 _"Maybe she's blackmailing him?" Alya suggested. "Or maybe she's really a witch and she has him under an evil spell!"_

 _Laughing, Marinette shut her down. "No, no, no, it's okay. It was just nice to see him again after all this time. He looks well. I'm happy to be back in touch. I have his personal phone number, and a loose promise of a dinner and game night at some point in the future. Maybe I'll even tell him to bring his fiancée."_

 _Alya's stunned gasp was a little too dramatic to be genuine. "Extending the olive branch, Marinette? Burying the hatchet? I never would have thought you could."_

 _"I may make her a special batch of my guacamole."_

 _"With extra strychnine?"_

 _"Perhaps."_

 _They laughed together about that. Marinette glanced and the time on her phone screen. "Listen I have to go, my break's up. I'll talk to you again soon. Love you."_

 _"Love you too. And hey! I want to see some of your nude drawings of Monsieur Adonis." She gave a comical purring growl._

 _Marinette hung up on her laughter, trying to control her blush._

.

-oOo-

.

She logged off her phone and computer, bidding goodbye to her remaining co-workers and heading home with her heels tucked under her arm. The sun was still shining and she stopped by a market stand in the park and managed to scrape together enough change to buy a cucumber, two tomatoes and a small baguette to augment her dinners for the rest of the week.

She locked the apartment door behind her and slid the chain home, kicking off her shoes and setting down her purse, opening the top so Tikki could fly free. She offered the little kwami a piece of bread (she didn't only eat cookies, it's just that cookies were her favorite and were the best thing to replenish her magical energies) with a tiny sliver of gouda and served herself the same with a third of the cucumber and one of the tomatoes cut up into bites and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and olive oil. It was a modest dinner, to be sure, but not totally unhealthy.

Before sitting down to eat Marinette undid her bra clasps and slid the straps down her arms, pulling the thing out her neckline without removing her blouse. She rubbed under her breasts where the underwire had been digging in because the darn thing wasn't fitting her properly right now, and added it to the pile of clothes she needed to modify. Next she uncorked one of her two remaining bottles of wine and poured a decent serving into a glass plus a drop into a porcelain thimble for Tikki, then recorked the remainder and stuck it into her tiny but mostly empty fridge on her way to the bathroom. There she set the plug in the drain and turned the water to her preferred degree of warmth, throwing a handful of lavender scented Epsom salts into the steaming basin.

While she waited for the tub to fill she munched on her dinner, thinking back on Alya's parting remark. _'Monsieur Adonis, huh?'_

She popped a bite of cucumber in her mouth and got up to pull out her book that contained today's drawings. She set the book upright on her desktop easel and began studying her work. The 5 minute sketches were rough, not just because of the time limit but also because of her nerves. She had captured the general impression of his shape though in each pose.

"My god, he's even more beautiful than when we were kids." She whispered, turning the page from the final 5 minute pose where he was reclining on one elbow with his head relaxed backward lazily. On his first 20-minute pose he had stood legs shoulder width apart, weight cocked into his right hip and right hand braced against the same, head angled back as though he were sizing up an opponent, or mockingly assessing a situation. He hadn't been facing her, so the angle put his face out of her line of sight. She had had a wonderful view of his broad, muscular back and narrow hips, plus his magnificent ass… And the time to use both charcoal and chalk to really highlight the light playing on all that beautiful bare skin.

"I think you're right." Tikki responded. She had finished her bread and cheese and was sitting on Marinette's shoulder, sipping her wine from the little porcelain thimble. "He was cute then."

"He was beautiful then too, but now…" Marinette turned the page. Here he was seated again, facing her, legs folded into a lotus pose and arms folded behind him so that his chest was expanded fully, shoulders down and back. His pectoral muscles were again surprisingly developed and pulled taught above what she had been shocked to see was a perfectly sculpted **eight-** pack. "Now…"

Tikki sipped her wine again. "Now he's stunning."

"Yes."

Before she could turn to the last page she realized the water was still running for her bath. She rushed in to catch it just in time, turning the flow of water off at the perfect depth. In the kitchen, Tikki dipped her thimble into Marinette's glass to refill it, and the raven-haired young woman quickly munched the rest of her modest dinner, resting the plate in the sink, before peeling off her black business slacks and draping them over the side of the couch.

She turned back to the bathroom while pulling the comb out of her bun that had held it together, and grabbed her wine glass with her other hand, massaging her scalp and combing through her hair. She set the wine on a tiny table in the bathroom beside the tub that she kept for just that purpose and pulled off her blouse and panties, dropping them onto the counter before stepping into the tub to join the red kwami who was already floating serenely in the water.

Marinette sighed as the heat of the water relieved some of the stress of the day and lingering soreness from last night's akuma attack. It also did just enough to relieve the achy itch in her core from reviewing her drawings of Adrien.

God help her, she wasn't sure whether to hope he would be returning later in the week to model for her class again or not. On the one hand, it was valuable experience and he was a sublime specimen… On the other, she had to deal with rekindling feelings of longing and unrequited love, for a man who was now engaged to wed her school-time nemesis.

Taking a deep breath, Marinette slumped further into the water until her nose was submerged, blowing a slow stream of dejected bubbles.

.

.

Author's Note: Updated 7/14/2018


	6. Dawning Apprehension

**Chapter 6: Dawning Apprehension**

.

-oOo-

.

Tuesday morning, Adrien woke to the soft patter of rain on his window and muted dawn light. He stretched and contemplated pulling the sheets over his head, catching another few minutes of sleep, but responsibility whispered that it really was time to get up and start the day. He sat up in bed and scratched at his scalp, tired eyes resting on Plagg where the cat kwami was curled up into a little black ball on one of Adrien's spare pillows.

Rainy days always made him feel sleepy. He would love to stay in and not leave the bed until noon, but that wouldn't do anything except gain him trouble with his father.

He rose and stretched, arms high over head and back arching until it popped. The sound made him recall the recent akuma battle and the way Ladybug had hit that wall, and suddenly he was completely awake and thinking about her. _'I hope she's doing okay. That was a nasty battle.'_ He wished again that they knew each other's identities, he would be so happy to take care of her if she was hurting from that injury; bring her food, wrap her up in a blanket, bring her books or movies… Really anything to make her more comfortable.

He sighed and moved into his bathroom to begin his morning ablutions. As the shower warmed up, he felt thankful again that he had purchased this condo after high school. The chances of his hero activities being discovered had dropped off sharply and he could now come and go as he pleased. His father had lightened up on him some regarding the constant need for a body guard and drivers, or rather Adrien had insisted once he turned eighteen that he didn't need or want them all the time. He could still call for a driver, if he chose to, but most often he preferred to walk or take the subway, and a body guard was only necessary for high-profile events. It was such a relief to move around without feeling like some extension of his father's control was breathing down his neck at all times.

Feeling more awake, Adrien stepped out of the shower and toweled off before wrapping the soft terrycloth around his hips. He combed through his hair and damp-styled it as usual, then applied shaving cream to his face to remove the golden stubble that cropped up every couple days. He was half way through that task when his phone began chiming a bright, peppy sounding pop tune he had set as Chloe's ringtone.

He wiped his hands and exited the bathroom with shaving cream still covering most of his face, plucking his phone from where it rested on his bedside table, and ignoring Plagg's disgruntled muttering about the volume. "Good morning, Chloe!" He greeted cheerfully, moving back into the bathroom to keep the conversation from further disturbing the tiny god.

"Good morning, Adrien. How was your day yesterday?" Her voice sounded strained to him.

"It was fine, Chloe." He replied, puzzled. "Is everything okay, you sound strange. Are you coming down with a cold?"

She huffed. "I'm fine. But you need to look at the local news this morning. Like, right now."

Adrien moved through his bedroom and out to the living room and punched the power button on the remote to his TV. "Why? What's going on?"

"Turn to channel 45."

That wasn't local news, that was a gossip news station for celebrity rumors and the like. The heavily made up talk show anchorwoman was sitting prettily on a stool beside a television monitor. Displayed on the monitor was a picture of him from yesterday with his hand at the small of Marinette's back, close but not actually touching her. "That paparazzi…" he murmured. Only the back of Marinette's head was visible, thankfully.

"Would you like to explain this to me?" She sounded pissed.

"Oh, Chloe…" Adrien hated when she acted this way. Anytime he met up with a female colleague or business partner it was the same thing, jealousy and melodramatic accusations along with crocodile tears and much figurative hair pulling (Chloe would never actually pull her own hair). It was like she didn't trust him at all, and that hurt him a lot, but was mostly just incredibly frustrating. "I ran into an old friend and we caught up over lunch. It wasn't what this ridiculous celebrity B.S. news is saying."

"An old friend?" She repeated. He could hear cloth rustling in the background. "Who was it? Someone from modeling? Or school?"

Adrien hesitated as he had yesterday; he knew Chloe and Marinette had essentially hated each other's guts in middle school. "From school. Ah, middle school actually… Do you remember Marinette?"

Chloe actually stopped whatever she was doing and the line was silent for a long moment before she hissed. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

"Ah… You remember her."

"Of course I remember that horrid little rat!"

"Chloe!" he frowned. He'd never understood their animosity toward each other. "Why do you two hate each other so much?"

Chloe didn't answer.

"Anyway, it was just two old friends catching up over lunch." He assured her. "She works at my company and we talked about her career path and what our old classmates are up to, stuff like that."

"I don't like this, Adrien." Her voice sounded disapproving and tense. "How did you come back in contact with **her**?"

He thought about how to explain it. "I'm doing some work for the university where she studies. We bumped into each other there." Best not to explain that he was nude modeling for an art class, he was sure her jealousy would be unbearable. And he didn't want to hurt Chloe either: she was a difficult person to get close to, and she didn't trust people easily, so she was always afraid of the worst. It was almost as though she expected betrayal from everyone. Adrien didn't understand it at all.

"Alright." She conceded after a few moments. "I believe you."

"Good, I'm glad. I'm sorry you were scared because of this stupid gossip news, I honestly didn't think having lunch with a friend was that big of a deal." He moved back into the bathroom to finish shaving, turning the phone to speaker and setting it on the counter.

"Adrien, honey, when you're famous everything is a big deal." She assured him. "Alright then, I'm glad it was nothing. So, I never heard from you when you wanted to do our couples massage, so I scheduled it for this Thursday at six o'clock. I thought we could catch some dinner afterward, how does that sound?"

"That sounds fine." He didn't care about getting couples massages, but it was something Chloe enjoyed. He just liked getting massages in general; it had to be the Chat in him. He rinsed his razor in the sink.

Chloe chattered at him about inconsequential things until he finished and bid her good day so he could get dressed.

.

-oOo-

.

He stepped out the door of the local coffee shop and carefully popped open his umbrella to ward off the chilly rain. It was late September so the weather was usually still pretty mild, but this cool front had brought in a bunch of chilly air over night. Hopefully it wouldn't stick around for too long. The rain had a tendency to drain his energy.

In his hand that wasn't holding the umbrella he carried a cardboard caddy with two coffees and a paper bag with a bagel in it. He had thought of Marinette and her too thin wrists while getting his own coffee this morning and ordered the second for her (same as she'd ordered it yesterday at lunch, three sugars and a splash of cream) along with the bagel. He hoped she would believe his story about receiving the wrong order, because he didn't want to get in trouble with her for not minding his own business, but she really did seem like she needed this little bit of help.

He'd thought of reaching out to Alya, whom he knew was still best friends with the raven-haired woman, to see if she had any ideas on how to help her, but again didn't want to get in trouble for nosing. For now he'd just try to do some small things for her to help however he could.

He crossed the last corner to Agreste Fashions and headed inside, greeting the receptionist with a friendly nod and smile, and collapsed his umbrella while crossing to the elevators. He got off on the fourth floor and made his way to Marinette's cubical. She wasn't there yet, which he felt a little relieved and a little disappointed about. He ducked his head into the office at the end of the hall, looking for Madame Foust, but he instead found a stern looking shorter and heavyset man.

The man looked up at him, surprise flickering across his pinched features. "Monsieur Agreste! Good morning, what can I do for you? We weren't expecting you to visit this department this morning, is anything wrong?"

"Oh no, no, no, nothing's wrong." Adrien assured the man with an easy smile. "I was just wondering when Marinette Dupain-Cheng is scheduled to begin work this morning."

The man frowned. Adrien spotted the name plate on the door that read 'Guy Bredeateau'. "Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng begins her shift at nine o'clock Tuesdays and Thursdays."

Adrien glanced at the watch on his wrist and was pleased to see he was only perhaps 15 minutes early. Her coffee would still be hot when she got here. "Excellent, thank you." He ducked back out the door.

At Marinette's desk he borrowed a Post-It note (pink, he wasn't surprised) and jotted down a quick note to her, before depositing the coffee cup and paper bag on her desk. Smiling to himself for a task completed, he walked back past the man's office calling, "Thanks again!" He returned to the elevator lobby and rode it up to the twelfth floor.

.

-oOo-

.

Guy Bredeateau frowned down at the coffee cup and paper bag deposited on the desk of one of his employees by Adrien Agreste. Try as he might, there were only a handful of reasons he could come up with for one of the upper executives and the very handsome, already engaged, son of the company's founder to be delivering breakfast to one of his interns… and none of them were good.

He could not afford any scandal or scrutiny on his department. He would keep a very close eye on Mlle. Dupain-Cheng. If she put one toe out of line, she would have to be gotten rid of.

He would not allow trouble to come his way because of some loose intern.

.

-oOo-

.

Adrien was in the middle of a boring meeting about quarterly profits when the in-house chat function popped up on his laptop screen.

 _MDCheng: Thank you for the coffee and bagel! I don't believe for a moment you 'got the wrong order', but I appreciate it. My list of things to pay you back for is getting pretty long…_

One corner of his mouth turned up in a lopsided smile. He tapped in the text field to reply.

 ** _AGAgreste: You don't believe me? I'm hurt._**

 _MDCheng: They just happened to give you the wrong order that is exactly how I had my coffee yesterday at lunch? Yeah… Pushing it._

 ** _AGAgreste: lol Okay, I got it for you, specifically. Can't a friend get a coffee for his friend?_**

 _MDCheng: … I suppose so, but still. That list is growing._

 ** _AGAgreste: Forget your silly list._**

 _MDCheng: Never! When would you like me to pay you back?  
Oh! Alya and Nino are coming for dinner and a game on Friday. You should join us.  
You could even invite Chloe._

Adrien was surprised by that last line. Would Chloe even be interested in going to such an event? He didn't know. She would probably turn her nose up at any food Marinette might cook; Chloe was the sort who ate exclusively at the finest restaurants and kept her own personal chef and only drank VOSS water in glass bottles.

 ** _AGAgreste: I would love to do dinner and a game on Friday. I'll invite Chloe, but I don't know if she has something else scheduled already._**

 _MDCheng: Okay, let me know by… Thursday afternoon? So I can plan._

 ** _AGAgreste: Can I bring anything?_**

 _MDCheng: Humm… Wine? Alya is bringing dessert._

 ** _AGAgreste: Wine it is. Red or White?_**

 _MDCheng: Red, I think. I'm making tacos!_

 ** _AGAgreste: Sounds delicious! I can hardly wait._**

 _MDCheng: Are you returning to the university again tomorrow?_

Adrien blinked at the abrupt change of topics. He had agreed to volunteer for two weeks for the class, but after how embarrassing it was to model nude in front of his friend he wasn't sure how he felt about it now. Though, he had agreed to do it… It would really put the university's art department out if he were to withdraw. And Marinette had indicated that she needed experience drawing his body type to improve not only her art but her work for the company designing clothes.

 ** _AGAgreste: Yes, I'm signed up for Monday, Wednesday, Friday through next week._**

 _MDCheng: Oh, great! I'll see you tomorrow morning, then! I've got to go, my break is about up. Thanks again for breakfast (and lunch yesterday)!_

 ** _AGAgreste: You're welcome! See you tomorrow!_**

Adrien glanced up at the terribly dry sounding presenter going over third quarter fundraising projections then read through his conversation with Marinette again, smiling slightly. She had always been so nice in middle school, when she managed to not be a nervous wreck. He was glad to see she still seemed just as nice, and almost all those nerves had been left behind. He still didn't know why she had always acted so afraid of him. He'd have to see how their renewed friendship progressed and maybe he could ask her, if it ever seemed appropriate, why she had always stuttered and hurried away from him back then.

He allowed his eyes to focus past the presenter so he was gazing out into the rain without seeming to not pay attention, and lost himself in remembrances of that first year of middle school. As usual when he thought of that time in his life he thought of two things above all others: meeting Nino and forming his first genuine friendship, and receiving his miraculous thereby becoming Chat Noir and meeting Ladybug. Adrien wiggled the warm metal on his right ring finger absently.

When Ladybug had made an off-hand remark this time last year about her boyfriend taking her out for their second anniversary, Adrien swore he had felt his heart crack and crumble into nothingness. Their second anniversary… She had been dating a guy, **some other guy** , for two years… And he had had no idea. She had been smiling happily when she mentioned it, wondering what this **other man** was planning for their evening, and Chat had tripped over the edge of a roof to faceplant in the gravel. It hurt, but not as much as the pain in his ribcage and the horrible burning of the skin at his chest and neck from embarrassing jealousy and mortification. No god-damn **wonder** she never looked at him or gave him the time of day; she had a **boyfriend**. And, by the beatific gentle smile on her angelic face, she must be very happy with him. Adrien had never wanted so badly to be someone other than who he was, and he had his fair share of wasted desires on that topic.

Being Chat Noir was the best thing that had ever happened to him. Even though his beloved Ladybug was happily in a relationship with someone that wasn't him, he was glad she was apparently happy. Because even more than he loved her romantically, he loved her as his best friend; her happiness and wellbeing were more important than anything.

Of course, since he had tripped, she came back to check on him. _"Ouch! Geez, Chat that looked like it hurt! Are you okay?"_

 _"I'll survive."_ He had replied. And he had. Chloe had asked him out again that very same week; though the magazines reported that they had been dating for years, it wasn't true. Chloe was his oldest friend and they hung out a lot, but he'd never been interested in dating her. In the aftermath of Ladybug accidentally and unknowingly breaking his heart, he had agreed to Chloe's request for a date out of a desire to move on and to try and quash his uncomfortable and overwhelming jealousy.

Chloe had swept him along on a date, and a second one, and before he realized it weeks had passed with them going on dates and he felt like he needed Chloe to feel normal. When he was hanging out with her she made it easy to divert his mind from Ladybug, keep his attention on her and off his broken heart. Chloe knew him pretty well, his civilian side at least, knew much of what made him tick and when he needed attention or to be left alone; he took a lot of comfort from her during the following months. They often went weeks without seeing each other, she was busy with her modeling career just beginning to take off and he with his usual modeling gigs and functioning as an executive for Agreste Fashions as well as university course work for his business degree, so they would come together for a date or two then part again. It was comfortable.

This past July Chloe's father had suggested they should just get married already; they'd been friends for years, dating for months, and to everyone watching seemed very happy. Gabriel had agreed, after all it would be good for business and good for Adrien's career as a model to marry someone already wealthy and famous, and after all they'd been friends since childhood… And again, before Adrien realized it, Gabriel placed a ring of glittering diamonds in his hands and informed him it's the one Chloe had picked out.

Adrien had stood outside her door at the Grand Paris Hotel for twenty minutes, mulling it over. Ladybug didn't want him, after five years as partners still didn't even want to know his real name… Chloe obviously did want him, and Chloe was also comfortable, but he didn't love her. That wasn't fair, he did love Chloe in a way, but it was pretty platonic. They kissed and it felt nice, but it never set his blood on fire the way he always imagined **love** should. Maybe he'd been wrong about that, and this was as good as it could get for him.

Knowing Ladybug was happy with her boyfriend and knowing Chloe was expecting this (she had had the ring picked out, after all) Adrien knelt before her door and knocked.

Her expression when she opened the door had surprised him; she wasn't at first shocked or deeply moved or overwhelmingly happy… Rather, she was satisfied and perhaps a little smug. After the briefest hesitation, she then smiled and became excited, shouting "Yes!" and taking the ring from the box to slip on her own finger. That was when he started wondering if he may have just made a terrible mistake in judgment. Apprehension had begun to tickle the back of his mind.

Adrien blinked and realized that the meeting was over. He quickly gathered his things and filed out of the boardroom and back to his office. It was on the top floor, same as the boardroom, so just a short walk. He paused at the door to his office and asked his secretary to order some lunch for him. The bubbly middle-aged woman nodded her understanding without losing her train of thought in the call she was on and jotted down a memo to herself. Adrien smiled his thanks and closed the door to his office in order to enjoy the quiet.

He frowned a little at his recent ruminations. Why was he allowing himself to be drowned in pensive thoughts? It was done; he was committed to Chloe, and he would have to have faith that with time they would grow closer. Hopefully they could kindle that fire he felt was currently lacking.

Nodding to himself he pulled out his phone and sent a message off to Chloe, extending Marinette's invitation to dinner and games on Friday evening.

.

.

 _ **Author's Notes:**_ _I hope you enjoyed this chapter! A glimpse at Chloe's jealousy, Adrien being a nice guy like he does, a less-than-kindly boss for Marinette, and some of Adrien's reasoning on why he's marrying Chloe. I think it's a pretty sad corner he's painted himself into: Ladybug broke his heart, though it was unknowingly and completely accidental, and he's trying to move on... Just maybe not in the best fashion._

 _I think it's really interesting that some of the reviews I've been getting are sympathetic to Chloe being in a loveless relationship with Adrien. I never imagined that would be people's response and it excites me to find out what people think of the plot and where it's going. Chloe has more than her fair share of character flaws though, and we'll explore those in future chapters, along with Adrien's and Marinette's flaws as well. None of them are perfect, and they all lead complicated lives._

 _Again, thank you so much for reading! Please always feel free to leave me a review with some of your thoughts on the story and characters so far. I appreciate my readers and I love when you share your thoughts with me._

 _~Malkharah_

Author's Note: Updated 7/14/2018


	7. Storm Front

**Chapter 7: Storm Front**

.

-oOo-

.

"Did you order any cheese for lunch?" Plagg queried from his hidden alcove in Adrien's book shelf. They had set it up as a comfortable place for him to hide during Adrien's work day.

Adrien glanced at his kwami partner and smiled slightly. "The fridge is stocked with cheese, you can have whatever you want." He set his cell phone on the contact charging pad on the desk and rested the laptop next to it, then sank down into the plush leather office chair and slouched slightly, stretching out his long legs. "Just not camembert, please. The smell…"

"Makes you nauseous, I know." Plagg eyed him while floating next to the tiny refrigerator built into the cabinet in the corner of his office. Adrien's office was pretty posh, the kind of office you'd expect to see on a television show. One wall was all floor to ceiling windows, another bookcases, a third held a television cleverly disguised as a painting (the image displayed changed periodically throughout the day) and some shelves with unimportant but aesthetically pleasing décor and a door to a small en suite bathroom, the fourth wall held the door and a miniscule bar. One side of the floor was a collection of attractive dark leather couches and chairs surrounding a low coffee table for intimate meetings. Really, it was like they never expected him to leave this office: it had everything one could need. There was even an exercise facility in one of the ground floor suites, as well as several cafés.

Munching on a wedge of parmesan, Plagg drifted over and sat on the cushy gel wrist rest of Adrien's mouse pad. "What's got you so down?"

The tiny cat-like god had to repeat himself before Adrien heard him, lost as he was in his thoughts. His voice was small and pensive when he finally replied. "Did I do the right thing? Proposing to Chloe?"

Plagg rolled his green eyes. "We've been over this dozens of times and you haven't mentioned it in nearly two weeks. You proposed. She accepted. Ladybug is out of your picture. What's done is done." _'Even if I do think it was a dumb-ass impulsive submission to your dictator-of-a-father's plans. Kid, you gave up too quickly! And now you've found Ladybug again in your civilian lives!'_ Like Tikki, he'd known all along that Ladybug and Marinette were one-and-the-same; the magic of the Miraculous prevented them from doing anything with that knowledge. They had to find each other under their own power or not at all. _'What will you do? Stick with the snobby stinky brat, or dump her?'_

Plagg floated across the desk and kicked the Newton's Cradle with one foot setting it clacking. "If you think you're not happy, and you won't be happy with Chloe, you have to change your situation. Whining about your decisions won't change them, or help you make new ones. If it doesn't feel like the right thing, dump her."

Adrien scrubbed his hands down his face. "Ugh, it's just not that simple. Her dad and my dad basically arranged it, and I really think Chloe loves me. I don't want to hurt her. She's my oldest friend; even if I'm not in love with her, I think we can make it work…"

"You mean you think you can fake it."

"No!" Adrien sighed then, leaning back in his office chair and swiveling back and forth. "I think love can grow from friendship. I hope it can…"

However, Plagg knew Adrien felt trapped by his own actions whether he realized it or not. He did what he'd always done when confronted with a problem; he did what Dad told him to do, what was expected. And now he'd ensnared himself in his own moral code. One lesson Adrien had learned from his father growing up, because Gabriel never did this: always keep your promises. Adrien had suffered so much disappointment from Gabriel breaking his promises to him that the boy had vowed to himself that he would not be like that. Adrien always kept his word. Even when it landed him in hot water…

Plagg had always disliked Chloe. Because he was a deity personified as a cat, the smells of her overpowering perfumes sickened him even worse than they did Adrien. It had gotten worse as the girl got older, like she used the perfumes more… Usually little girls learned some control with that stuff as they grew into maturity, but Chloe went crazy with the stuff. At times, Plagg caught faint hints of other unsettling smells on the cold blonde woman that raised his hackles and made his stomach churn, but never enough to identify what was hidden by the sickly, chemically sweet and floral bouquets she drenched herself in. Plagg didn't trust her as far as he could spit, but this was the choice Adrien had made. Adrien had to choose what to do about it, or what not to do.

Adrien sighed again after several minutes, and sat up in his chair to open his laptop. Just as he was logging in to check his schedule for the rest of the day the desk phone rang. He tapped the speaker button. "This is Adrien."

"Your lunch is here, Adrien," came his secretary's sweet, motherly voice. "Shall I bring it in?"

"Yes please, thank you Marie."

The line cut off and Plagg darted down and underneath the desk so he would be out of view. Marie swept in a few moments later with a paper bag from a local deli. Adrien thanked her and she left with a smile, reminding him that he was due in the studio at two o'clock for a photo shoot for next year's spring line. A glance at the clock on his wall indicated it was 1:18; plenty of time to eat lunch, brush his teeth and head down three floors to the photo studio. Plagg drifted back up and perched himself on the base of the Newton's Cradle Adrien had received from Nino for his birthday a couple years ago and continued munching on his cheese.

Adrien tucked into his salad out of a sense of duty more than any real desire to eat it. He was really looking forward to Marinette's house and eating tacos on Friday evening. He hadn't had tacos in ages.

He was only half way through the salad when there was brilliant flash of lightning, followed almost immediately by a jarringly loud crack of thunder that shook the windows and rattled the various decorative items around the room. Adrien flinched and dropped his fork, rising from his chair and crossing to the massive windows. He couldn't see the place the lightning struck as it was a few blocks away, and across the river from Agreste Fashions HQ, but he could clearly see the rising pillar of smoke.

The fine hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end. "Geezus, that was close!" His skin continued to peak and shiver. He chaffed the goose bumps away by rubbing his arms, but they came right back. "Plagg, I don't think that was natural lightning."

Plagg was hovering right next to his shoulder, and gave a decisive nod. "I agree. Let's go check it out." He tucked into the breast pocket inside Adrien's suit jacket.

Adrien quickly snapped the lid on his salad and stuffed it into the small refrigerator before letting himself out of his office. He moved quickly and calmly down the hall to the stair well and took the steps three at a stride, vaulting easily over the barrier meant to keep employees away from the roof access door. It opened easily and he let himself out onto the misty gravel surface. A quick glance around confirmed he was alone.

"Let's make this quick: Plagg, claws out!"

.

-oOo-

.

Marinette jumped and gasped when she ended up stabbing herself with a pin when that extremely loud crack of thunder rattled the building. "Ow, dammit." She pulled the pin out from under her finger nail and pinched it against her thumb to ease the pain and stop the bleeding.

"You okay?" Claudia asked from over the cube wall. She was also working on some mock ups for these bra submissions due at the end of next week. "That sounded really close. I didn't realize it was raining so hard…"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I stuck myself with one of these stupid pins." Marinette threw the pin in her trash can out of spite.

"Honey, go run some water on it. You know where the first aid kit is."

"Yeah, yeah…" Marinette snatched her purse up and briskly walked down the hall, her sensible flat mary-janes tapping on the thin office carpeting. As she went she felt the fine hairs on her arms standing on end and a sensation like an itch inside her skull growing stronger with every step. She walked straight past the bathrooms and ducked into the stair well instead, darting down the steps to the first floor as quickly as she could without looking suspicious. She passed through the lobby and out onto the street, turning left and heading to the end of the block and around the corner. At the back of Agreste Fashions there was an alley where she ducked into a spot she knew wasn't covered by security cameras.

"It's hardly raining hard enough for lightning and thunder, Tikki. My skin is crawling." She cracked open her purse and the tiny scarlet goddess gazed grimly up at her.

"Something doesn't feel right. Let's go check it out."

"Okay; Tikki, spots on!" The rush of magic across her skin was heady as always and swept from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head. The warm and reassuring presence of her mask helped her set aside the stinging in her fingertip and carry on. Ladybug snagged the magical yoyo from around her hips and slung it up to latch around a fire escape five stories up inside the alley, then to the roof. The misty air rushing past was cool and refreshing and helped clear her mind from her tedious work day.

"Alright, where did that lightning hit?" She scanned the horizon and her eyes snagged on a column of dark smoke lazily drifting upward through the slow mist that was falling. "Bingo."

As she zipped over roof tops toward the smoke she caught a glimpse of a black clad form and a mop of messy golden hair. _'Kitty is already on his way, excellent.'_ He was moving at a good clip too, though, so she wasn't able to catch up to him easily. He dropped out of her sight on the far side of the River Seine into some light commercial buildings where the dwindling pillar of smoke originated. Ladybug took a deep lungful of the cool misty air and swung out over the river moments behind her mysterious partner. She redirected her yoyo in midair to latch onto the balcony of a building on the far side of the river and tugged herself across. Two more swings and she dropped lightly to the street outside of a very upscale antique jewelry store.

The front window of the store had been blasted out, and the ground outside the shop was littered with broken glass and debris. The wall above the window featured a blackened crater in the brickwork, as well as a tree along the boulevard that was split and still slightly on fire, causing the dark smoke that had drawn her attention to this location.

Ladybug heard a familiar voice coming from inside the shop. She wrapped her yoyo around her waist and stepped through the shattered window. Inside, Chat Noir was talking to an elderly man who was pale and had a hard time hearing him.

"Sorry, son, say that again for me." The older gentleman said much too loudly. His hair was sticking up in all directions and his jacket looked faintly crispy, darkened and brittle at the edges.

"Your hearing must have been damaged by that thunder." Chat explained again with an air of patience. He glanced at her when he heard the crunch of debris under foot and offered her one of his less flirty smiles.

The man shook his head apologetically. He shouted, "Can you speak up? I can't hear you; I think the thunder damaged my ears…" He touched his far ear, the one Ladybug couldn't see from her angle, and he fingers came away stained dark red. His voice turned shaky. "Oh… I think I better sit down."

Chat helped the elderly man to find his seat on a chair behind the jewelry counter. The case was smashed open and had been looted; the cases were largely empty and jewelry littered the floor amongst the broken glass. Ladybug cast her eye around taking in details while Chat reassured the shop owner that the police and paramedics were on their way. Chat patted him gently on the shoulder when the older man leaned his head back carefully against the wall and closed his eyes, then made his way around the counter to her side.

Somewhere in the past four years Chat had really grown. He now loomed over her, topping her by a solid six inches. Her head would neatly tuck under his chin if she gave him a hug. His shoulders and chest had broadened and filled out too; now imposing and well muscled, he tapered to a narrow waist and hips, then powerful looking legs, all encased in a skin-tight sheathe of black armor. _'It's just not fair that he became so ridiculously sexy._ '

He stopped beside her, rocking back onto one heel and smiled down at her, strange cat eyes hinting at a mischievous grin though his expression remained professionally neutral. He had gotten much better about being professional most of the time, particularly in front of the public. "You got here quickly, My Lady. You must have been in the neighborhood."

"Close enough for that thunder to scare the crap out of me." She nodded, pinching her stinging finger tip again. The tip of her gloved finger felt damp and uncomfortably sticky.

Chat noticed the motion of her hand and frowned. His nostrils flared delicately. "My Lady, you're bleeding!"

"It's nothing." She assured him. "From before I transformed… I stuck myself with a pin when the thunder startled me."

"Ouch. Must have been a hard stick to draw that much blood." He narrowed his eyes at her hand, and might have said more, but his ear twitched and he refocused past her, pupils tightening to thinner ellipses. She turned to find what had drawn his attention. An ambulance had just pulled up. They made their way outside and gave what information they could to the paramedics, and the police when they pulled up moments later, reassuring them that they would help track down whatever had caused this incident. They reconvened on the roof of the shop a few minutes later.

Ladybug frowned at the gravel between her feet. "It was definitely something unnatural."

"For sure." Chat was reclining against a slanted section of roof somewhat back from the street, the tip of his tail-like belt twitching agitatedly back and forth. "It smelled like wood smoke and ozone, from the tree and the lightning that smashed the window, but it was definitely an akuma."

"You can tell from the smell?" She was surprised.

"No… My hackles are still raised." He rubbed a clawed hand along the back of his neck and through his hair, tail twitching back and forth with a sharp _tap-tap_. The short hair on his neck visibly bristled right back on end again. "I can feel the akuma's lingering presence like the memory of nails on a chalk board." He shivered.

She hadn't realized that he could be quite that sensitive to the akuma's magics… Usually the akuma was right at or near the scene of an incident. The last time they had had to track one down was over two years ago. "That's impressive. I didn't know you could do that. How…?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. Some combination of smell and the willies." He shuddered again, chafing his arms with his hands as though smoothing down goosebumps.

"That may be useful to track this down. We'll have to meet back here tonight, though; I have to get back to work."

"Same." He rose effortlessly from his casual seeming slouch on the angled roof and glanced unhappily at the gloomy sky. "I hope this clears up by tonight. I don't much fancy prowling around Paris on cold misty roof tops."

She grinned at him teasingly. "It's not the first time and it won't be the last."

He smirked at her, sauntering closer to her side. "True… and I always have thoughts of you to keep me warm through the long cold night."

 _'Ah, there he is. I almost wondered what happened to my flirty kitty, so serious.'_ She shook her head at him but was still smiling. "Down, Kitty. Let's get back to work. I'll meet you here around ten o'clock."

With a salacious wink and an amused twist of his provocative lips, he snagged her hand and pressed a gentle kiss to the no-longer bleeding fingertip. "Take care of this." His voice was deeper now than when they were kids and hummed pleasantly along her senses. "I'll see you tonight."

She watched as he leapt off the roof with a running start and used his baton to pole-vault across the rooftops. He whooped as it extended, thrusting him quite high into the air over the river, then laughing he free-falled out of sight amongst the taller buildings beyond the water.

Shaking her head again she smiled at her hand where she could still feel the warmth of his grip. _'Damn that man.'_ There was no real animosity behind the thought. She wiped her hands over her face, dashing the moisture there from the thin drizzle onto the gravel of the rooftop. _'He is entirely too much for anyone's good.'_ Too much of what exactly she couldn't say, even to herself. Her smile stayed in place as she began the run back to work, though she wasn't aware of it.

.

-oOo-

.

Less than thirty minutes after she'd stood up from her desk she was sitting back down, a band aid over her left middle fingertip to protect the injured nail bed. She glanced at the clock as she sat down, grimacing at how long that had all taken: M. Bredeauteau gave her a serious stink-eye when she scurried past on her way back from the bathroom.

Claudia leaned over the cube wall with her mock-up in hand and needle flashing so it would look like she was still working. "Marinette, where did you go? Don't try to tell me you were in the bathroom all that time, I checked when M. Bredeauteau asked where you'd gone for so long."

Marinette moaned pitifully. "Ugh, I'm so sorry. I have this thing about fingernails… And tending my injury made me feel all woozy and light-headed. I cleaned it up and then went outside for a little while to settle my stomach in the cool air." She hated lying to her friend and to her employer, but they absolutely couldn't know the truth, of course. Unfortunately being a superhero had meant she had a reputation of disappearing at work and from university classes randomly and being impossible to find.

Claudia shook her head at her. "You better be careful, Marinette. M. Bredeauteau is on the warpath today. For some reason—"

"Mlle. Cheng. I'd like to see you in my office, please." His voice sounded even more terse than usual. Marinette cringed in apprehension.

Claudia hissed through her teeth sympathetically, wincing. "Good luck."

Unable to do anything else, Marinette clenched her fists and took a deep breath then let it out slowly. She rose from her chair and made her way down the line of cubicles, trying not to think of the similarity to an inmate walking down death row.

"Close the door, please." M. Bredeauteau was typing on his computer when she stepped into the office. Her hand shook on the door knob as she latched it. "You have disappeared during your shift here five times since you started here five weeks ago, and been late for your shift four other times. We checked the restrooms today and you were nowhere to be found. Where were you?"

Marinette gave him the same reason she'd given Claudia, citing queasiness from injuring her fingernail.

"We need reliable workers in this department, Mlle. Cheng, I hope you understand that." He sat back in his chair and frowned at her. "We have deadlines to meet and we can't do that if our employees are running out all the time, particularly with Fashion Week coming up so soon. This is your final warning, if you're late again this month, or if you disappear during your shift again other than at a scheduled break time with no explanation, you will be dismissed, your internship terminated. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir, I understand. I'm very sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Mlle. Cheng. You must correct the problem. Final warning." He fixed her with his eyes to drive the severity of his statements home. "You are dismissed."

.

.

 ** _Author's_** _ **Notes:**_ _Finally a glimpse at the interactions of an adult Ladybug and Chat Noir. They are so fun together and I enjoy trying to capture how their behavior toward each other would have evolved over the course of their partnership. Still the flirtation and deflection, but tempered by some wisdom and more comfortable familiarity. Those two are so fun they almost write themselves._

 _Plagg's thoughts on Chloe are interesting, and on Adrien's choices as well. And poor Marinette is on a final warning at work. She's got it rough._

 _Next time we'll see Ladybug and Chat Noir doing some further investigation into this jewelry store robbery slash akuma attack. What would an akuma want with jewelry, anyway?_

 _~Malkharah_

Author's Note: Updated 7/14/2018


	8. A Night at the Opera

_Author's Note: Hello again! I realized that I had a LOT of editing to do for the sake of flow and continuity, and to incorporate a more understandable timeline for the story, so I have done some considerable editing of previous chapters. I recommend that you go back and re-read chapters 1 - 7 if you read them previously. Some details have been modified, and it will help with following the story going forward._

 _Otherwise, here is the next chapter of Drawn Together. Please enjoy!_

.

.

 **Chapter 8: A Night at the Opera**

.

-oOo-

.

The weather hadn't gotten better. Chat slumped miserably against the leeward side of a convenient chimney across the street from the jewelry store. The misty rain swirled through the bright Parisian night and Chat grumbled silently to himself at the cold drip sliding down his neck into the leather suit. _'When is the last time it was sunny? Friday? … Thursday of last week?'_ Wishing this unseasonably cool wet weather would clear up only diverted his attention for a few moments.

 _'Ladybug said she stuck herself with a pin this afternoon.'_ He rubbed at the moisture dripping off the end of his nose. _'I wonder what kind of work she does that involves pins? What kind of pin? Like… a sewing needle? That's a kind of pin, right? Maybe she's a costume maker for a theater? A seamstress? Hah, what if she's a fashion designer? Or maybe she meant like a hair pin, a bobby pin. How would that be sharp enough to poke her, though?'_

Whenever he discovered something new about Ladybug this ridiculous game always started up in his mind again. For a while, as a kid, he had kept a board under his bed that he added new information to as it was discovered, like some kind of crazy nut-job conspiracy theorist. Pictures, blog posts, newspaper clippings, all linked together with bits of string in an attempt to work out her identity. He had actually relied heavily on Alya's Lady-Blog for information, but then Ladybug had told him that she occasionally gave Alya false information to lead her away from the truth. Frustrated that months of work had probably been corrupted by errors, Adrien had thrown the whole project in the trash.

He tried not to guess but just couldn't help himself. New information set his brain churning like dropping a rock into water, an explosion of activity and thoughts bubbling up and swirling around. After a while his speculation would calm down again.

There was a very faint rumble of thunder in the far distance. Another cold drop of water slid down his neck and he shivered, then shook his head rapidly back and forth to spray some of the water away. When he stopped, Ladybug was there watching him.

"I thought you were a cat, not a dog." She smirked at him in amusement. The streetlights behind her cast her face in golden light and deep shadow and he tried his best to ignore the acceleration of his heartbeat.

"Ha ha, very funny." He pushed away from the chimney and came to join her at the edge of the roof. "I'll have you know lions do the same thing to shake off water."

"You better comb down your mane or you'll give the shop keeper a fright."

He eyed her playfully. "M'lady, was that a pun? Because I'd be lion if I said I it didn't _cat_ ch my attention."

"Ugh. No." She groaned and shoved his shoulder. As always whenever she initiated contact with him, he felt butterflies in his belly. "Just no. Please stop, I can't handle your jokes today."

He became aware of a tightness around her eyes and in the set of her shoulders. "Is everything okay, Ladybug?" Her shoulders hitched higher as if in defense. "You seem kinda tense…"

She made a visible effort to relax her shoulders, but when her lovely blue eyes met his, the tightness was still there and her smile didn't seem truly genuine. "I'll survive. I'm having a stressful week in my civilian life, but it's nothing I can't handle. I'll be okay."

He rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Send me a message if you want to talk. I'll help however I can, even if it's just to lend an ear. I do have three to spare."

She smiled again, more sincerely this time but it still didn't light her eyes. "I appreciate the offer. For now, let's get this done and get out of the rain." She gestured across the street at the jewelry store where all the broken glass had been swept up and a length of chain link fence had been bolted in place across the front of the shop to deter anyone from trying to get at the unsecured interior. Caution tape linked pylons at a distance to keep foot traffic away, and a police officer was standing guard until the windows could be replaced or they could catch the akuma and purify it to reverse the damage magically.

Ladybug swung her yoyo at a streetlamp and leapt delicately off the building, lightly swinging down to the pavement across the street. Chat followed her by extending his pole to the ground and allowing his weight to carry him down in a descending arc. The police officer looked relieved to see them.

"Ladybug! Chat Noir! It's good to see you both." She offered them both a handshake. "Are you here to repair the damages?"

Ladybug's grimace told of frustration. "No, I'm afraid we can't repair the damage until we're able to catch and cleanse the akuma. We're here looking for information on what the akuma stole. Is the shop keeper inside?"

The police officer shook her head. "They decided to keep him at the hospital overnight for observation. The damage to his ear was pretty severe, and the shock he sustained from the attack wasn't good for his heart, either. His business partner and an employee are inside, though. They've been cleaning up since this afternoon. I'll let you in."

They followed her to the chain link police barrier, where she released the padlocked gate with a key from her belt and gestured the two superheroes inside. "They'll be in the back, probably. Just announce yourselves. I have to stay out here to stand guard."

"Thank you for your help, officer." Chat nodded as he followed Ladybug through the gate.

The interior of the jewelry shop was still a mess. Sheets of heavy duty plastic had been taped up on the inside of the smashed out windows to help keep out the rain. Most of the broken glass had been swept up to clear the floor, but there was still a distinct sparkle on the carpet and drifted in corners that told of a hasty job.

"Hello?" Ladybug called. "Your friendly neighborhood superheroes are here. We have a few questions."

Chat grinned at her word choice. _'Is M'lady a comic book fan?'_ He'd thought so before, as she sometimes made such references. It was too adorable, thinking she could be a nerd just like him. He wiped the dopey grin from his face when he heard footsteps approaching.

"Ladybug! Oh, what can we do for you?" The elderly man who emerged from the back of the shop seemed harried. Curly grey hair stood up in tangles around his balding head, and wire framed glasses perched precariously near the tip of his nose. "We've finished with our inventory just a few minutes ago but we still have a lot of mess to clean up and paperwork to fill out." He was clearly just about at the end of his rope.

"We need to know what was taken." She explained. "It should help us track down the akuma. As soon as we can do that I hope we will be able to set this place to rights."

He nodded, and waved a hand for them to follow through the shop. "Thank God we never keep loose stones up front, or it would have been a real nightmare trying to find them amongst all that broken glass." Debris crunched under foot as they traversed the hallway behind the counter to a heavily reinforced door. "The damn monster didn't even try to get back here. It just smashed everything up front and made a mess of poor Armine's ear drums." He continued to grumble while punching in a code on the door's lock. The door released with a green flash of the buttons and a soft beep, and the fellow pulled the heavy door open to lead them through.

In an office a few steps beyond the security door, the gentleman sat down at a desk where he unlocked a computer and pushed his glasses back into place. "As far as our inventory indicates, only four items were stolen." He tapped the mouse a few times and a printer behind him buzzed to life, spitting out a single sheet of paper bearing descriptions and value estimates. "They were acquired just yesterday. Bought them off a fellow who said they belonged to his grandmother who'd recently passed away. He didn't want to keep 'em, needed the money to afford funeral expenses, he said. The joke's on him, this jewelry was worth ten times what he sold 'em to me for. I was looking forward to turning a nice profit of such gorgeous antique pieces." He scratched at his already tangled hair and looked chagrined. "Since they've been stolen, I guess the joke's on me."

"Do you have images of the items that were stolen?" Chat asked.

The fellow nodded easily and tapped at the mouse a few more times. The printer produced four pages in glossy color depicting curling golden jewelry set with rubies and diamonds. The pages displayed a pair of dangling earrings, a necklace, a bracelet, and a hair pin, all perfectly matched and clearly meant to be worn together. Chat looked at the pictures over Ladybug's shoulder but they didn't strike any familiarity for him, not that he would have expected them to.

"Can you show us where these pieces were being displayed?" She passed the pictures to Chat. He could tell from her tone of voice that she was feeling bothered by something.

The shop owner preceded them back through the security door.

"What's wrong, LB?"

She shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm not sure. I want to see where they were displayed."

"Your feminine intuition chiming in?" He joked, wanting to lighten her mood.

She just huffed. "Not now, Chat. I'm not sure what it is, I just need to see the display case." She rubbed her arms as they left the hall and entered the sales floor. "I just… I need to."

Feeling ill at ease because of her agitation, Chat followed her to the display case the shop owner pointed out. There was a heavy sounding thud in the back of the shop, and he hastily excused himself to check on his grandson who was helping with the cleanup.

Ladybug didn't acknowledge his departure at all, her attention was focused solely on the display case. "Do you see this?" Her voice was soft and hesitant.

Chat frowned at her and the display case. "See what, M'lady?"

She drew breath to respond, but it hitched for a second. "There's a… like, a cloud around the display. A pale blue-grey halo of light." She glanced at him, then back at the case. "You don't see this?"

He examined it closely, leaning in and drawing the air into his lungs. The sharp tang of ozone was just barely present, much reduced from how it had been earlier in the day. "No light. The ozone smell has almost faded. Do you think this is a new ability?"

"Yeah, I think so." She sounded unsettled. "You really don't see anything?" She peered at him searchingly, eyes dark and fathomless as the ocean in the dimmed light of the shop.

He shook his head, honestly unable to perceive whatever she was seeing. "Is it particularly bright?"

"Not bright… It's more compelling, I think." She stared at the case again. "I can't not pay attention to it… Like being in battle and using my Lucky Charm. Things leap out at me and demand my attention if they can be useful, and they're always bright red. It's never happened before without the Lucky Charm active."

"I didn't know that." He confessed. "I always wondered how you were able to jerry-rig the kinds of crazy Rube Goldberg stuff you do."

She nodded but didn't answer. After a few moments of silence, she said, "I want to touch it."

"Go for it!"

She quirked an eyebrow at him disbelievingly.

"What?!" He defended himself. "A new ability is great! Maybe you can cleanse the akuma remotely, or something! That would be fantastic!"

She smiled at his enthusiasm. It was the first smile of the evening that reached her eyes. She still looked tense. "I think that's wishful thinking, but alright. Here I go."

She stretched out her arms and flexed her fingers, then rested her palms along the upper edge of the ruined display case.

There were a few moments where nothing happened.

Chat didn't know what he expected; a light show, or some cool new magic effect, or for her to say something.

What he did not expect was for her to cry out in pain, a sharp gasp that stabbed right through to his spine. She flung herself backwards into him, releasing the case and curling to her left side. Chat dropped the print outs he'd been holding and caught her before she could hit the ground.

"M'lady, what's wrong?!" He grasped her shoulders turning her so he could search her face. Her eyes were clenched shut and lips skinned back from her teeth in a pained grimace. For a moment she held her breath, then let out a ragged sob and went completely limp in his arms.

"Ladybug? Ladybug?!"

.

-oOo-

.

 _Louis hated the opera. Having to get dressed up in a tuxedo; having the collar of the stupid shirt choke him, the stuffy jacket, the itchy waistband of the pants and pinchy shoes. Sitting in the uncomfortable theater chairs listening to some lady on stage bellow and shriek in Italian and wave her arms dramatically. It was sooooo booooring! He'd rather be anywhere than here right now._

 _He glanced sideways at Maman. She seemed very interested in the performance. She always did. Gramma was Italian, so Louis supposed that's why Maman cared so much. Beyond her, Sarah seemed less enthralled in the performance, but still looked happy to be wearing Maman's jewelry. Louis rolled his eyes remembering how Sarah had begged and pleaded to be allowed to wear the jewelry she'd loved forever. Her birthday had just happened and she was seventeen now, old enough Papa said to be 'a lady', whatever that was supposed to mean._

 _._

 _He tugged on Maman's sleeve, doing his best to look pale and pathetic. "Mama, I don't feel good."_

 _Maman looked at him and her eyebrows turned up in a frown. "What's wrong, Louis?"_

 _"My stomach doesn't feel good. I think I ate something bad at dinner. Can we go home?"_

 _Maman put her cool hands on his face. Louis was glad the awful tuxedo made him so warm, he was sure he must feel at least slightly feverish to her. "Do you want to just go use the bathroom?"_

 _"No, I want to lie down." He usually hated being treated like a baby. He was almost fifteen. But he was willing to tolerate the babying if it would get him out of this damn theater. "I feel really sick to my stomach."_

 _Maman turned to Papa. They exchanged a few quiet words and Papa looked at Louis carefully in the dim light. That must have been in his favor, because Papa nodded. Papa tapped Enzo's shoulder. Enzo looked irritated to have the performance interrupted. Stupid snobby Enzo with his snobby Doctorate program. Still, at Maman's ushering, they all shuffled carefully out of the theater. Louis felt impressed with his own acting._

 _._

 _Maman lay her soft arm around Louis' shoulders in the back seat of the car. "Does the cool air feel better, sweetheart?"_

 _"A bit." Louis whined. Glad to be anywhere other than the awful theater and heading home where he could ditch the tux and lie in his room and play games on his phone while pretending to be sick, Louis leaned his head back and closed his eyes, doing his best to appear nauseous._

 _._

 _Maman and Louis were the last ones into the house from the garage. Papa got a glass of water from the fridge and brought it over to Louis, who did act sick but not quite as sick as before. He didn't want to end up at the emergency room, after all._

 _He sipped the water. "I think I'll just go lie down and try to sleep." Nah, he'd really be playing Wakfu: The Brotherhood on his phone._

 _Papa patted him on the shoulder. "Feel better, son."_

 _There was a sudden and very loud, sharp noise from another part of the house. Alarmed, the three in the kitchen all looked at each other._

 _"What was that?" Maman said what each of them was wondering._

 _"Sarah?" Papa called._

 _Louis heard Enzo calling for Sarah, too. Enzo yelled suddenly, "HEY!" There were two more repetitions of that sharp percussive sound, followed by a heavy thud._

 _Feeling sick for real now, Louis tugged on Maman's sleeve. Papa bellowed something Louis didn't understand and ran out of the room. Maman grabbed Louis by the arm and hauled him down the same hall, fear coming upon them quickly. Papa tore up the stairs with a club of some sort in hand, while Maman pulled Louis down the gallery toward the office. Papa must have grabbed his cricket bat off the wall display, but he only made it half way up the stairs before that sharp sound came again, louder than ever._

 _Louis realized what it was when Papa's legs went limp like noodles under him and he crashed into the steps, cricket bat clattering away and a fine red mist in the air where Papa's chest had been a moment before._

 _Maman screamed. She tugged on Louis' arm, yanking him toward the office and the haven of the Safe Room. They could lock themselves in and call the police! They had only taken a few steps when Louis saw a man step into the hall in front of the office door._

 _There was no discernable expression on his face as he raised his gun and pointed it at them._

 _The sharp sounds were deafening in the narrow gallery, but not as much as the pained cry Maman made into Louis' ear. She had pushed him behind her to shield him from the gunman. It didn't help, the second shot also hit Maman, but the third struck Louis._

 _Pain exploded in his shoulder, pain like he couldn't believe could exist. He and Maman went down in a heap. He saw the tears in Maman's eyes, saw the glitter of her wedding ring as she reached out to him, but the pain was just too much._

 _Louis passed out._

.

-oOo-

.

Ladybug gasped and thrust herself backwards from the grip that held her. She grabbed at her left shoulder, the memory of the pain so acute that she fully expected her hand to come away covered in blood.

There was nothing there. Her glove was clean.

"Ladybug, are you hurt?!" Chat's voice was panicked in a way she had rarely heard it. He was kneeling on the ground, hands outstretched toward her and kitty ears back flat against his head in distress. She realized she must have shoved him away from her. "Please tell me what's wrong!"

"I'm okay!" She assured him. She grabbed at her shoulder again while he crawled closer to her on his knees, hands reaching for her. "I'm alright."

When his hands brushed her elbows she eagerly accepted the warm circle his strong arms formed around her. She wasn't sure who gained more comfort from that embrace, her or her partner, and she pushed herself into the broad expanse of his chest, seeking ground. Eventually she released her shoulder, looking at her hand again and still amazed there was no blood. "I'm okay. I'm not hurt."

He drew a deep breath next to her ear, and sighed shakily. The damp heat of his exhale on her neck didn't give her the usual flush of internal warmth she experienced when she let him too close. She just shivered when he pulled away to look her in the face. "What the hell happened?"

She shook her head, staring at him with so much relief she could feel herself beginning to shake. "I was shot."

"What?!" he barked, glancing her over, not understanding.

"No! I wasn't shot, the boy was!" She tried to explain. It didn't make any sense. The entire experience was jumbled up in her mind, too many images and sensations and emotions crushed into one dense moment that didn't belong to her. "I was at the opera, and I didn't want to be there! He didn't want to, he wanted to go home, so I pretended to be sick. Papa drove us home, but when he got there… They shot me! No! The boy! They shot him!"

"Ladybug, you're not making sense."

She growled in frustration. Even as she was speaking the specifics were fading from her mind. "I was at the opera! I was miserable, so we left! But… When we got home, there was— I… Dammit, I can't remember now!"

"But you're really not hurt?" He asked again.

She put her hand to her left shoulder again, there was no pain there now, but the memory of pain that didn't happen to her was jarring. "No. No, I'm not hurt at all. It… wasn't my pain." She was surprised to say it and know it was true, when the fading memory told her there should be blood.

He pulled her close again for another hug. She leaned into him gratefully, still feeling horribly shaken. His warmth and solidity helped her feel grounded in her own mind again, and she wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed gently. "Thanks, Kitty. I'm okay."

He squeezed her back. "I'm so relieved." He breathed in her ear.

Together they stood, using each other for balance. "How long was I out?"

"Not more than ten seconds or so." He assured her, still looming in her space, not wanting to move away in case she needed him. Her legs still felt shaky enough that she was okay with his imposing proximity. "It was barely enough time for me to do more than start panicking."

She glanced at the ruined display case that had started all this and her eyes went wide with surprise. What had been a faint cloud of energy before she touched the case was now a vibrant glow dancing in the air around the smashed display. Her eyes darted around the room, seeing small bits of glowing blue and silvery grey scattered about the floor, remnants of the glass that hadn't gotten caught in the sweeping. There was a brilliant glow out of sight beyond the plastic sheeting and police barrier.

"What is it, Ladybug?" Chat rested a hand on her shoulder.

She glanced at him and was immediately distracted by the faint halo about his head and shoulders. Every color she had ever seen or could imagine and some she didn't possess names for shifted and flickered just at the edge of perception. It shone on his hair and sparkled in his eyes, even danced on his shoulders. It was faint, so very faint… Like a lunar rainbow. But it was stunning.

She had no idea what it was.

"M'lady?" His voice made her blink. She looked around again. The light of the energy was just a tad less brilliant now. "Ladybug, your eyes are blue."

She turned her head again to stare at him incredulously. "You're just realizing this now?"

He shook his head. "Don't be catty with me, Ladybug." He stalked over to the wall and grabbed a small hand mirror that had been spared destruction by virtue of having been hung on a peg. He came back and held it up for her. "The sclera: the whites of your eyes are blue."

She stared in the mirror in amazement. He was correct. The whites of her eyes were now luminously the palest blue found in her irises, glowing enough to be quite noticeable in the darkened room.

Glowing similar to Chat's. Her pupils were still perfectly round though.

"Huh."

He dipped his chin, staring at her in disbelief. "That's all you have to say? 'Huh?'"

She wrinkled her nose at him, trying to ignore the beautiful colorful lights in his golden hair. "Yes. Huh… I think I know what it is."

He flicked an ear at her and his tail twitched.

"I think I'm seeing the akuma's energies." She explained. She gestured at the ruined case but was very careful not to come near touching it again. She didn't want to relive that horrible moment. "This is something the akuma touched; when I was looking at it before there was a very faint cloud about it, like a cloud of light."

"You mean an aura?" He asked.

"Yes. An aura." She agreed. She allowed herself to be distracted by the colorful aura playing about his head and shoulders for a brief moment. "That's a good word for it. When I touched the case, I think I lived one of the akuma's memories. Now, this case is covered in a bright aura. I can see bits of glass on the floor that were part of this case, they glow in the same way. Outside there is a brilliant aura… I bet it's where the lightning struck this afternoon."

"Do you think it's a trail we can follow?" He sounded pleased and excited.

She grinned at him in response. "I say we give it a shot!"

.

.

 _ **Author's Note:** Apologies for the long delay in updating. As I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, I had a lot of editing to do. But also real life happens, and living life must always come first._

 _Now I have some very solid outline for most of the rest of this story, so I should hopefully be able to proceed with it in a more timely fashion. Deepest thanks and appreciation go to Katie H. for all her help being my sounding board and keeping it real._


	9. Shifting Perspectives

**Chapter 9: Shifting Perspectives**

.

-oOo-

.

Ladybug skidded to a stop in the lush center strip of a broad parkway in an affluent part of Paris she'd never come near before. Blinking hard she glared back the way they had come, frowning past Chat Noir at the cars streaming by, lights creating curtains of blinding mist as they went about their business.

Chat pushed his sodden bangs out of his eyes and followed her glare, puzzled. "What's wrong, did it double back on us?"

She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands, scowling in frustration. "It's gone, the light has faded." She tried to will the delicate ethereal light that seemed to mark the akuma's presence back into existence, but it was gone as though it had never been. "Dammit, there's nothing here!"

Chat offered her a conciliatory expression, before glancing around at the shining grass and cars passing them slowly. He smiled when the rear window of a dark Audi sedan rolled down and a little girl with curly hair waved at them enthusiastically, and he raised a hand at her in greeting. Ladybug waved too, but she was distracted with thoughts of tracking the akuma.

Chat Noir glanced up and down the parkway at the houses and the increasing number of pedestrians beginning to linger and pull out their cell phones to take pictures of the loitering heroes. "Well, if your new ability has faded there's not much we can do now. We'll have to wait for the akuma to attack again."

Ladybug wiped a hand across her brow to take away some of the water and looked around rather than frowning down the road they'd been following. The homes on either side of the parkway could more aptly be called mansions; during their headlong rush of the past 10 minutes they had crossed into the 16th Arrondissement, where some of the wealthiest families of Paris kept their homes. The row homes on either side of the parkway were among the few in the city blessed with a strip of lawn between the wrought iron fencing and the extravagant granite steps sweeping up to the entryway of each four storey home. These were single family row homes, ridiculously posh and expensive in an ancient city like Paris where living space is at a premium.

"Let's find a place out of the way to talk." She suggested, trying her best to put aside the tension and disappointment she felt from having her new skill fade out on her. She had really had her hopes set on being able to catch up to this akuma tonight and put an end to it.

Chat nodded in agreement, pulling his baton from its place at his belt. "I know a good spot not far from here where we can get out of the rain. Follow me, M'Lady." Planting the baton firmly on the ground, he waved a jaunty salute to the gawking pedestrians and their phones and extended the pole to vault to the top of the nearest row house.

Ladybug pulled her yoyo from around her hips and tossed it up to follow him, making the effort to smile politely for the crowd as she zipped up and out of sight. She followed Chat's dark form across rooftops and over streets, admiring despite herself the way the dark leather shined wetly along the curves and planes of his broad back. He led them to a roof top terrace of a coffee shop several streets over, where there was an arch that extended over the patio protecting café goers from sun and rain alike. At this time of night, the coffee shop was closed and the patio dark and empty.

She glanced around, observing the dry area well back near the windows and the dark iron chairs and tables. Happy to get out of the pervasive mist for a few minutes, Ladybug pulled out a heavy chair and took a seat beneath the sloping roof. Chat flopped down in a chair next to her, throwing his long legs up on the table.

"I'll talk to my kwami about this new Aura Sight ability." Ladybug crossed her arms over her chest, partly for warmth and partly for comfort. This had been a very difficult and exhausting evening. "To have it at all is certainly useful, but I wonder if it will knock me out like that every time."

Chat nodded in agreement. "To be debilitated like that in battle would a huge liability. I will always watch your back, but hopefully once you're more used to and better adapted to it, it won't hit you as hard. Can you recall any more of what it was you saw?"

"Less… Just the pain and the fear. There was a man in the home who shot me. Er- the boy." It was a challenge to keep the memory separate from her own, because she had lived it from the boy's perspective, seeing it all through his mind and eyes.

Chat rested a warm hand on her shoulder. She could feel the heat of him through both their suits and firmly crushed her desire to lean in for more. "I have faith that with practice and experience you will master this new skill. You can do everything you set your mind to, M'Lady." He smiled at her tenderly, and suddenly Ladybug almost didn't know how to feel: Pleased? Embarrassed? Touched? He was so kind to her…

Feeling almost shy now, she changed the subject. "This is a nice looking café." Ladybug sighed, leaning back so she could see through the darkened windows to the space inside. "I don't think I've even been to this part of town before. How did you know about it?"

"Oh, I've been out this way before at nights." Chat remarked offhandedly, sliding his hand from her shoulder and stretching his arms up to link his hands behind his head. She missed his warmth dearly. He tilted the chair back precariously on two legs and rubbed an itch on one shin with the heel of the opposite boot. "Days too, though it's been years since I came here as a civilian. I used to have a lot of ph-" he stopped suddenly, eyes flickering to meet hers, and changed what he'd been about to say, "Of appointments in this area, of one sort or another."

Ladybug raised a skeptical eyebrow at him. "You have reason to come to _Le Seizième_ often? This is a really swanky area…"

"Yes. What's with that tone? You don't think I'm fancy?" Chat gave her one of his more charming lopsided grins. "I used to visit acquaintances in the area, and occasionally had to attend parties around here as well."

She rolled her eyes, figuring he was exaggerating things again. "You just don't strike me as an upper class stuffy party and formal wear kind of guy."

He snorted indelicately. "There's a lot about me you don't know." There was a trace of old resentment in his voice that actually made Ladybug feel a little bit sad. She truly did believe it was in both their best interests to keep their partnership to the masks only. If they allowed themselves to get any closer, to know each other's identities, it could compromise their team dynamic and make complications Ladybug was honestly a little afraid to consider. Knowing would engender many new kinds of risk; it was safer to maintain the status quo…

After a few moments Chat seemed to realize her sudden melancholy. He dropped his arms and let the chair come to rest on all four legs once more. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled-for. I understand your feelings on the subject, and you know mine." He took a deep breath and Ladybug again admired the glitter of light in the beads of rain still clinging to the broad expanse of his leather clad chest. In another situation, she would honestly love to know who he was: he seemed like a genuinely wonderful person, and despite their professional relationship, Ladybug considered Chat to be one of her very dearest friends. She wouldn't trust just any man to spend so much time alone with her in the dark of night, and to dive headfirst into battle and defend her life as she defended his. But no matter how much she had felt herself being drawn to him recently, she wasn't comfortable assuming the risk that would come from exposure.

Chat released the breath in a deep sigh and seemed to deflate slightly. His voice was low and tender when he said, "I didn't mean to say something to upset you." His kitty ears were drooping down against his darkened hair, the color of autumn wheat in the wet and darkness.

She offered a small smile. "I know." She didn't say more on that subject.

They sat in companionable silence, listening to the dripping rain water beyond their shelter. Eventually, Chat dropped his feet back to the ground and sat up in his chair. "Well, it's getting late, and I think the rain is coming down harder now than before. I don't know about you, but I have an early morning ahead of me."

"You're right." Ladybug ran a hand through her bangs to push their damp weight off her face. "I have an early start too. Do you want me to take those print outs from the jewelry store manager and see what I can find?" They had gathered them quickly before dashing out of the shop.

"Nah, I'll keep them and do some research." He waved her offer off. "If I find anything I'll message you."

"Okay, Chat. Thank you."

He took her hand up in his customary farewell, brushing what she was sure were warm lips across her knuckles. "I'll see you around, M'Lady." He stepped out from under the overhang, vaulted away into the mist and was gone.

Ladybug gave a sigh of her own and threw her yoyo out into the night, intent on getting home and warming up and relaxing with a hot shower and a steaming cup of tea.

.

-oOo-

.

Marinette dropped her transformation as she was closing the door from her balcony. Shutting out the cold misty night and happy to breathe in the warm, cozy atmosphere of home, she suddenly felt the weight of what happened this evening hit her all at once. As Tikki zipped over to the cookie jar on the island, Marinette staggered to her sofa and collapsed backwards over the thick squashy arm. The cushions _whumped_ softly when her weight hit them. Before she could so much as close her eyes, Tikki was hovering over her face, square of shortbread in hand.

"Oh Marinette!" She fairly squealed in her high, clear voice. "I'm so so SO proud of you!"

Feeling dizzy from the evening's events and revelations, Marinette eyed her kwami in confusion. "Why?"

Tikki did a cute little pirouette in the air, snarfing another chunk of biscuit. "The Aura Sight ability is a rare one for my Ladybugs to acquire! I hoped you would gain this skill, and I'm so pleased you got it. I've always thought we were particularly well attuned to each other."

Marinette had a hard time following the importance of Tikki's excited chatter. "So it's a good thing?"

"Oh yes! It's very good!"

"That's good." She sighed and closed her eyes to rest. Just for a few moments…

"No, no, no, Marinette don't fall asleep on the couch!" Tikki landed on her forehead and tapped her eyebrow delicately with one little foot. Crumbs fell on Marinette's closed eyelids and she hardly even cared. "Oopsie, sorry about that… Your back will ache if you sleep here, and you really need to eat something still this evening."

Tikki picked up the big crumbs and Marinette brushed the rest off her face and onto the floor, vowing to sweep some time soon. "Food. Ugh… Okay." Honestly she was so tired food sounded unappetizing.

Tikki sat on a folded towel on the island beside the glass cookie jar as Marinette puttered around the kitchen, heating water for tea and Cup-o-Noodle. The steaming cup of herbal tea and broke college student emergency subsistence noodles actually did make Marinette feel a little better. She was even able to salvage the remainder of Monday's cucumber and her last tomato to make a small salad for herself.

The scarlet goddess pulled another cookie from the jar and carried it to Marinette to have for dessert. "I know this evening was hard on you, but you've done well. The Aura Sight will get stronger and more controllable in time, but you have to be sure you eat to keep up your strength. You can only go so far as your body can carry you, and without fuel you will break down."

Marinette smiled tiredly at her kwami and nibbled the cookie while sipping the last of her tea, enjoying the warmth in her belly.

After zombie-ing through a hot shower, Marinette climbed the steps to her loft. She threw on some warm pajamas, then unceremoniously shoved all her throw pillows across the bed and onto the floor before rolling into her sheets, tugging the quilt up to her chin.

Tikki flitted over to the wall and turned off the lights. By the time she was back and ready to curl up on Marinette's pillow, the raven haired girl was already fast asleep. Tikki glowed pale red as she gazed down at her exhausted charge. "Sleep well and wake, my chosen." The petite goddess brushed a kiss against Marinette's smooth cheek. The girl sighed and her brow eased, sinking into deeper slumber.

.

-oOo-

.

"Thanks, Gus. I'll be ready for you again at quarter past eleven." Adrien clambered out of the back of the sleek black town car on Wednesday morning. He hauled his duffel bag after him and shut the door as he hit the trigger on his umbrella. The drizzle from the night before had graduated to a steady soaking rain and didn't look like it would let up any time soon.

The walk from the curb to the art building wasn't a long one, but he was glad for the umbrella all the same. The chill he'd taken from running around in the rain last night with Ladybug was a deep one, he'd been cold all night and it hadn't released him from its clutches until he was sitting in the sauna at the gym this morning. Before that he had to warm up with a run through one of the lighter parkour courses and endure 25 minutes of direct instruction by his personal trainer. After the grueling kickboxing session, and several runs through more challenging parkour courses, sitting in the sauna had finally driven the chill off. His arms and hips felt sore from the strikes he'd taken, but it would wear off quickly. With the magic of the Miraculous coursing through him, he healed at an accelerated rate, so there should be no lingering soreness by this time tomorrow.

He pushed open the door to the art building and collapsed his umbrella, and was greeted the earthy must of charcoal and wet clay. Climbing the steps to the second floor where the figure drawing studio was located, he tested the air and was pleased to find the warm sweetness he knew belonged to Marinette. She must have gotten here early to set up her supplies. He passed through the door to the studio and spotted her in a far corner of the room, talking quietly with her instructor.

Today she wore a long sleeved dark purple dress in thick fabric, the short hem shifted heavily around her thighs. Her legs were clad in pale heather grey leggings and a dark grey mid-calf boot with decorative straps and a modest heel. Dark hair was tucked away beneath a pale grey oversized beanie, bangs swept to one side. As on Monday, she looked just ridiculously fashionable and pretty, though as he drew near her he could tell her eyes looked tired and her complexion somewhat wan.

She smiled when she saw him though, and he enjoyed the tiny burst of brightness in her scent. "Good morning, Adrien."

"Good morning." He replied with a smile. "You look nice today. I like your hat."

She raised a slim hand and patted the back of her hat lightly, subtle pinkness blossoming along her cheekbones. "Oh, thank you."

"You're welcome." Adrien shifted on his feet, trying to decide how to bring up his concern. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?"

She nodded and followed him to an out of the way corner of the art room, watching him with a curious expression. "What's up?"

He gently lowered his duffel bag to the ground at his feet, deciding how to phrase this. "So… I know this is a little weird because we know each other, ah… Me being the art model for this class, I mean." Her face passed quickly through pink into the red end of the blush spectrum and he could feel his own ear tips burning in response. "Monday I was, um… Careful how I chose to pose because of that, but I wanted to ask if I should continue to be that careful, or if I should be more, ah… dynamic in my poses." _'Oh, good lord, this is awkward. Are you okay with me flashing my junk at you? Hahaha, I know it's weird because we're friends, but it's all for the sake of art!'_ He rubbed the knuckles of one hand against the palm of the other, feeling so embarrassed with this topic he'd brought up, but determined to see it through. "I mean, I'm actually pretty used to having to, um… be naked in front of people, like, backstage at fashion shows we have to change really fast, so yeah… I just don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I also don't want to make your grade suffer because you're not, uh… getting all the angles…" He trailed off, neck burning.

Marinette wrapped her arms around herself, her sweet scent almost crackling in his nose from her shared embarrassment. "Oh, w- well…" He could hear the tremble in her voice because of how uncomfortable she was. "Well, it is important that I'm able to practice all the angles and points of view." She cleared her throat, uncrossing her arms and tugging down on her dress sleeves instead. "I'd have to say, ah… You just do what you have to do to do your job well, and I'll do what I have to to do mine. We'll just pretend we **don't** know each other while you're, um- ah- **posing** … okay? That should hopefully help make it less awkward." She chaffed her bottom lip with her teeth for a moment. "You're just the model and I'm just the artist, is that okay?"

Adrien cleared his throat. "Yes, that's fine. I'll just do my thing then." Before he could say anything else to embarrass them both even further, he picked up and shouldered his bag. "Well, I should go change. I'll, ah… see you later?"

Marinette waved a hand at him and bobbed a nod, face still deeply blushing. "Okay, later."

Adrien nodded in passing to Madame Fortier, but fled down the hall to the disused office where he'd changed out of his clothes and into his robe on Monday. As soon as he locked the door, Plagg was out of the bag and jeering at him. "What was **that**? I thought you were all smooth professionalism, Mister Supermodel. You couldn't even get out a full sentence with the shy girl!"

He swiped at Plagg, but the kwami nimbly evaded and stayed out of reach. "Shut up! It's different with her! I know her from when we were kids. She's not just another model or designer: She's my friend." Frustrated, embarrassed, and confused about his reactions to her, Adrien began yanking his shirt off over his head. "I'd feel just as weird posing for Alya or Nino to draw me."

Plagg snickered. "If you say so." His tone was obnoxiously knowing, hinting at shades of innuendo Adrien chose not to consider.

Feeling irritated, he tugged off the rest of his clothes and dug into this duffel bag for his robe and slippers. Before he made to slip out of the changing room, Adrien frowned back at the black cat god who hovered near the bag on the table. Though he was small, the tiny smirk and glowing green eyes seemed oppressive and ancient. "Have fun, Adrien. I'll be here when you're done." Despite knowing him for over five years now, Plagg sometimes still gave him the creeps.

Through the whole class, Adrien did not look at Marinette, adhering to the fiction she had suggested that they would pretend not to know each other while he was unclothed. He had a slightly easier time making it through class today. He kept his mind firmly on bland subjects and did his best to ignore the enticing peaks of Marinette's scent. The first time he chose to face her for a thirty minute pose, he had to focus very hard on controlling his thoughts and body, but after a few minutes her interest seemed to taper off as the novelty faded and she focused on doing her work.

He understood it: he was very aware of the fact that he was an attractive man. It was, after all, how he made his living. That Marinette found him physically appealing wasn't at all surprising, and she wasn't the only one in the room. Several women (and two men) had similar reactions to what Marinette seemed to experience. He simply kept his mind on things like his schedule for Fashion Week and what was the next video game he wanted to play, and the hour and a half passed relatively smoothly.

.

-oOo-

.

Marinette's Wednesday was awful.

After somehow making it through that **painfully** **awkward** conversation with Adrien before her figure drawing class, then enduring the class itself where she had to maintain a thin veneer of professionalism and draw the glorious nude body of her perpetual crush, her nerves for the day were already wearing thin. She saw him as he was leaving the building after class, and he offered her a cautious smile and small wave before darting down the steps into the rain.

Claudia had walked with her to her apartment to drop off her art things (Claudia lived on campus in the dorms, so she kept her things in a locker in the art building), before they both continued on to the internship at Agreste Fashions.

It was much worse than Marinette could have anticipated.

M. Bredeauteau checked on her constantly throughout her day to make sure she stayed at her desk the entire time. His face was quite bland but he still made Marinette very uncomfortable. She had a sense of looming threat about him, she could feel his gaze on her and it made her skin crawl. Already worn out from the morning class, chilled still from the late night run through the rain trying to track down the akuma, and deeply uneasy from her boss's menacing glares, Marinette's anxiety was so high she felt slightly nauseous. She could barely sip the tea Claudia brought her to warm up with around two o'clock. She wound up just clutching the cup with trembling hands, trying to absorb as much warmth as possible.

During her one sanctioned break of the afternoon, Marinette went for a brief walk. She needed to stretch her legs, to get away from the oppressive atmosphere generated by her boss. She darted into the bathroom and, seeing she was alone, stepped beyond that into the empty nursing mothers' room. It was quiet and Marinette sat on the plush chair with her torso folded down to her knees. Tikki tried gently to get Marinette to eat one of the cookies she always had in her purse, but the thought of trying to force anything into her tense stomach turned her pale complexion slightly green.

Knowing Wednesdays were Marinette's night to go have dinner with her parents, Tikki let the matter drop. She would have the chance to relax this evening and eat a good meal with her family… But her dark eyes watched her chosen with great concern.

By the time four thirty came around, Marinette couldn't get out of that building fast enough.

She chose to take the subway to her parent's bakery. On a nice day, a brisk 20 minute walk would have been lovely, but the rain was steadily soaking everything in Paris. She didn't have the energy and didn't want to risk getting wet and even colder than she already was. By the time she reached the bakery, Marinette was still chilled to the bone anyway.

The bell on the door chimed brightly when Marinette tugged it open just before five o'clock. Her mother was just concluding a transaction for one of the evening regulars when she looked over. Marinette could tell by the instant concern on Sabine's face that she must look about as fantastic as she felt.

"Sweetheart, what's the matter?" Sabine bustled over after seeing her customer out and locking the bakery door, flipping the business sign to 'closed' for the evening. She softly traced her small warm hands over Marinette's cheeks and pushed her bangs off her face to test her daughter's forehead. "You look like you have one foot in the grave!"

"That good, huh?" Marinette tried to joke, but it came out flat.

"Hush now dear, let's get you upstairs and you can tell me what's the matter." Sabine gently pulled Marinette through to the staircase in the back of the shop and up the stairs to home. She gently directed Marinette through the door then closed it to access the closet, pulling out a heavy fleece shawl for Marinette to snuggle up in. In the kitchen, the dark haired young woman perched at the dining table snug in the shawl, watching her tiny mother bustle around the space, checking pots on the stove that were merrily simmering away. The first thing Sabine did was set a steaming mug of broth in front of her. With a kiss on her daughter's forehead, she next began pulling things from the fridge to set up for stir-fry.

"Thanks, Mama." Marinette grasped the oversized mug with both hands and hugged it to her chest, breathing in the warm savory vapor. "I'm just having a really, really, REALLY stressful week… And it's got me a little under the weather."

"I'm sorry you're not feeling well, Marinette." Sabine offered her a smile so warm and full of love it actually did help Marinette feel a little bit better. "Just let us know if there's anything we can do to help you, okay?"

"Yes, Mama." Marinette brought the mug to her lips and blew carefully on the broth before sipping. The savory heat was rich in flavor and texture, it instantly made her mouth begin watering. She swallowed and enjoyed the path of heat trailing down her esophagus and blossoming in her belly, warming her from the inside. "This is amazing, is it chicken?"

"Duck," Sabine corrected. She was briskly chopping cabbage to add to the remainder of the broth. "With a couple pork bones I found in the freezer."

"It's so good." Marinette took another slurp of broth, feeling better already.

"Thank you, sweetheart! I'm glad you like it so much." Sabine smiled at her sweetly.

In Marinette's purse, Tikki heaved a sigh of relief. _'Good, she's eating something finally. She can't keep going on so little food. The magic can't sustain her like this.'_

Tom came down the hall then, in fresh pajamas with his robe tucked snugly around him for warmth, hair still damp from the shower. "Marinette, good to see you, cupcake!" He gave her a hug around the shoulders and planted a prickly kiss on her head, mustache tickling her scalp. "You look like you're not feeling well."

"Marinette's having a stressful week at work." Sabine confided to her husband.

"A really, really, REALLY stressful week." Marinette corrected.

"Oh boy, sounds serious." Tom moved behind his wife to unplug the rice cooker from the wall.

"It's not just work. My art class…" Marinette stopped, hesitating on telling them about Adrien. They knew how big her crush on him had been. But now that she'd started and both her parents were watching her with expectant stares, made more interested by the fact that she'd stopped in the middle of her sentence. _'Damn my stupid rambling…'_ Giving it up and too tired to make up a lie, Marinette gave them the truth. "Do you remember Adrien?"

Sabine's eyes glittered with delight. "That nice handsome boy from your first year of highschool?"

"The one you had pictures of wallpapering you room?" Tom grinned at her. Marinette felt herself pinking.

"The one Alya was constantly trying to find opportunities to set you up with?" Sabine winked.

Tom laughed. "The one who came over to practice for the video game tournament you kicked butt in that year?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"The one you –"

"Oh my god, yes, him!" Marinette abandoned her mug and dropped her face into her hands. _'Ugh, let me just die now, please.'_

Her parents both chuckled while she glared at them from between her fingers. Sabine pulled a bowl of meat from the refrigerator and began using two spoons to make small meatballs, dropping them into the simmering broth. "We might just remember that particular person. A little bit."

Marinette huffed a disgruntled sigh and collected her mug once more. She sipped the hot broth before saying, "He's volunteering as the model for my art class."

Sabine paused in her meatball shaping and gave Marinette a direct look. "Oh."

Tom quirked his head, puzzled.

Marinette nodded at her mother. "Yeah."

Sabine's curious grey eyes glittered and her mouth turned up slightly at one corner. " _Oohhh._ "

Marinette groaned, hiding her face behind her mug. "Yes!"

"What?" Tom asked.

Sabine resumed her meatball shaping. "Marinette is in a figure drawing class, Tom."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah, and?"

"Figure drawing models pose naked."

His other eyebrow rose to join its companion. "Oh!"

Marinette dropped her face to the counter. The cool tile felt nice against her blush. Tikki peeked her little face out of her purse at her and gave her an encouraging little smile with an edge of teasing. She stuck her tongue out at the kwami, who responded in kind. "It's not a big deal! It's just… awkward."

"I'm sure it is." Tom consoled. "How is Adrien, these days? He was always such a nice young man."

"He's good." Marinette sat upright, but avoided eye contact with her parents, choosing instead to study the glaze on her mug. "He works at the same company I do, obviously, since it's his dad's company. He um… He recognized me in class on Monday, so after class was over he came over to talk."

Sabine drew breath to ask a question, but Marinette cut her off with a glare. "AFTER he left and got dressed again!" Her mother just smiled at her, teasingly. Marinette huffed again, irritated with her blushing. "So we went out and had lunch together to catch up. It was nice: he's still a really nice guy. It was good to renew that friendship."

"Well, that's good, then!" Tom smiled at her. "How's work going?"

A little of her anxiety came back, pinching uncomfortably in her belly. "Work is… what's actually being stressful." She confessed. "I've been… late a couple times, and now my boss has me on his shit-list. I can't be late or do anything wrong for the foreseeable future, or he's going to terminate the internship."

Her parents exchanged _a look._ Tardiness had been a problem for Marinette for years now, for obvious reasons. She was always having to run off to fight akuma, and missing sleep because of that and having to catch up on work she missed with doing her superhero duties. Of course, her parents didn't know that…

"Well, you'll just have to not be late then." Tom suggested. _'If only it were that easy, Papa.'_

Dinner was pork stir fry with carrots and snow peas, lion's head soup, and a bottle of rice wine they shared three ways. The food did a lot to fortify Marinette and she felt better than she had since Monday after lunch. The hot food in her belly warmed her from the inside and though she was still exhausted and somewhat chilled, she felt almost human.

As they were sitting around the table finishing off a cream torte with glazed berries that was left over from the day before, Sabine fixed Marinette with a stern eye. "We're going to send you home with the leftovers."

"Mama, there's no need!" Marinette tried to deflect her offer. "I can take care of myself; you don't have to send me with food." A blatant lie… She really could use the extra help. Her pay check didn't deposit to her account until Friday, and she did a mental review of the contents of her fridge and pantry: last night's cup-o-noodle was pretty much the end of her food for the week, until she could shop after work on Friday for the planned Taco Night with Alya and Nino coming over, and Adrien.

"You won't change my mind, Marinette." Sabine hopped off her stool and began packing a takeaway container she had saved with rice and stir fry to send home with her daughter. "You are looking much **much** too thin these days. You need to be sure you're eating well so you can keep up your crazy schedule with college, your internship, and all your other projects. I will not take no for an answer!"

"I'll grab a few items from the bakery case downstairs for you too, cupcake." Tom patted her on the shoulder.

Appreciating the offer, but still embarrassed that she really didn't make enough money to sustain herself, Marinette didn't protest again. She was stubborn, but she couldn't refuse food she was in desperate need of, and she knew Tikki was worried about her too: the kwami had been insisting Marinette share her precious post-akuma-fight recharge cookies, just so she could sustain herself. Those were a double edged sword, because Marinette couldn't afford right now to just stop somewhere and buy more, if they ran out and there was an akuma things would go sideways. And though she had all the ingredients at home to make more shortbread cookies, that took time and energy she was severely lacking right now. Marinette tugged the heavy shawl tighter around her shoulders to hold in the warmth of her meal. "Okay. Thank you."

Sabine hummed a pleased note as she ladled soup into a salvaged one liter tub. "Tell us if you need more, Marinette. I know you've been on your own for a while now, but as your parents it's our job to worry about you anyway. Some food is nothing, nothing at all, and we're happy to help you."

"Thanks Mama."

Tom reappeared from downstairs with a small bakery box full of croissants and other goodies from the day-old section. "Here are some other goodies for you to take home." He slid the box onto the counter next to her other spoils.

"Thanks Papa."

Her parents sent her on her way home laden with tomorrow's meals. Marinette gave them each a hug and a kiss and thanked her mother for letting her borrow the heavy green shawl to stay warm with on the walk home. The temperature had dropped as the sun began its descent toward the horizon and the clouds were still issuing that implacable soaking rain.

Even so, she felt pretty good. A belly full of warm food and time spent with her parents, a warm shawl around her and an umbrella to protect her head, and a bag full of food for tomorrow, things were looking up! The walk home was pretty pleasant.

That uplifting feeling of hope and contentment lasted until she was three blocks from her apartment.

The pedestrian signal turned in her favor and Marinette stepped off the curb to cross the street, but she made it only one step before someone yelled, "Hey, watch it!"

Startled, Marinette leapt backwards just in time to avoid getting run down by a bike courier. He splashed through a puddle, drenching her legs at the same time her heel slid off her hasty step backward onto the curb. Her heel hit the sewer grate awkwardly, jarring her spine and her arms both flew wide to try and recover her balance, tossing her umbrella and the bag of leftovers high into the air.

She collapsed heavily on to the wet sidewalk, pain shooting from her butt to her hips from the impact and cold rainwater soaking through her clothes immediately where she was sitting and from the open skies above. With a wet sounding splat her bag of leftovers landed in the street in a perfect fashion for the bag to immediately fill with runoff from the gutter, soaking the paper box of pastries. Her umbrella rolled away down the sidewalk, half the ribs bent wrong and useless.

"Watch out, you dumb bitch!" The bike courier hollered at her rudely as he pedaled away down the street.

Marinette sat still for a second, assessing the damage and feeling stunned.

Feeling blank and empty, all her newly kindled warmth having washed down the gutter with the rain and spilled soup, Marinette carefully stood and gathered her things. The food was ruined, but she wouldn't leave it in the gutter… That would be littering.

Her butt was definitely going to be bruised from that fall. She still felt lucky she hadn't been run over by a car. Pulling the shawl over her head to protect her from the falling rain, she collapsed the ruined umbrella and waited for another cycle of the light. Checking carefully in both directions, Marinette limped home.

The umbrella went into the trash can in her apartment lobby. She felt a sincere pang of loss for that umbrella: it was the one Adrien had given her all those years ago. A glance into the bag confirmed her fears; the box of pastries was sodden and the lids of both takeaway containers had been jarred loose in their fall and impact, the contents lost to the gutter or splattered on the inside of the bag. She put that in the lobby trash can too.

She made her way carefully to the elevator and pressed the up button. Once inside, Tikki opened her purse and drifted out. In her soft voice, she sighed, "Oh Marinette…"

The raven haired girl didn't realize she was crying until Tikki gently wiped a tear from her chilled face.

She dripped a path down the sixth floor hallway to her door. Inside, she went straight to the bathroom and began shedding all her soaking wet clothes and dropping them into the sink. She plucked the pins out of her hair and carefully combed the braids out with numb fingers.

Turning the water up to be uncomfortably hot, Marinette clambered into the shower. The steaming current against her hair and back helped drive some of the chill away, but she felt a deeper chill too, one that seemed to reside in the pit of her stomach and that she had a harder time driving off.

Shutting off the water and carefully climbing out of the tub, mindful of the soreness in her bottom, Marinette toweled off and tossed her towel carelessly over her drying rack. Naked, she passed through her dark apartment and hauled herself up the steps to the loft.

She smiled softly when she saw that Tikki had pushed her throw pillows to the floor for her and turned down the blankets. A couple votive candles were lit on her bedside table and Tikki was holding the spent match. "Thank you so much, Tikki." She offered her hand to the kwami and brought her near for a kiss on her scarlet head. "You take such good care of me."

"Of course, Marinette." Tikki soothed, rising from her palm and floating over to drop the match into the waste bin beneath the bedside table. "Can I do anything else for you?"

Marinette took a deep breath, wincing at the renewed tightness in her shoulders. "Ah- I think I just want some alone time."

Reading her chosen's mood and intentions, Tikki nodded. "Okay. I will stay downstairs in the closet tonight. Feel better."

"Thanks Tikki." She watched the tiny goddess drift over the railing and out of sight.

Marinette gently stretched, tilting her head back and forth and using her fingers to pinch the tense muscles along the tops of her shoulders and into her neck, she allowed her mind to wander over the memory of Adrien today during class. She smoothed one hand down from her neck, trailing it lightly over the swell of her breast and grazing the nipple, and on down the flat slope of her belly to her slightly protruding hip bone. Maybe it was inappropriate, to think of him in these moments, but he was one of her go to fantasies… and what she thought in the privacy of her own mind and in the dark of her room couldn't hurt anyone.

Pretending they were his hands, she slid the one still on her neck on a path to follow its mate, drawing her first hand back up to her breast, ghosting over her nipple again. Imagining Adrien's bright green eyes, half lidded and darkened to a shaded forest, sweltering in their intensity, beads of glistening sweat scattered across all that beautifully sculpted golden flesh, Marinette sank down onto her bed.

Using her hands and her imagination, she played her tense body like a fine instrument. Panting, her head rocking back and forth on her pillow, she imagined him hovering over her his lips slightly parted, breathing accelerated and eyes focused on his work. His fingers sunken into her up to the last knuckle. His hair mussed from her hands and sticking to his face with sweat. She felt herself toeing the edge of the cliff.

In the theater of her mind, he looked up to meet her eyes… And suddenly it wasn't Adrien, but Chat Noir: feline eyes glowing in the darkness of his mask, elliptical pupils blown wide and dark ears perked forward to capture every sound she made… And suddenly she was flung off that precipice, tumbling, crashing through sensation, limbs quivering then freezing as she rode the wave of her release.

Body slowly settling down after that crest, Marinette felt much of her tension soothing away. She didn't think anything about her thoughts turning from Adrien to Chat. Both men were gorgeous, and entered her thoughts often. That the transition from one to the other had pushed her to her peak was interesting, but it certainly wasn't the first time she had entertained such thoughts about her partner. Maybe Chat really was beginning to get under her skin after all these years.

She slipped out of bed long enough to pad down to the bathroom and clean up. When she climbed back in, she had just enough energy to blow out the votives and roll into her blankets. Warm, relaxed, and satisfied, Marinette passed into dreams.

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-oOo-

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading! I'm sorry for the longer delay in posting: I'm trying to rebuild a buffer of a few chapters in what I have written so that I can edit as I go rather than having to re-post things with updates and corrections. Also still working on drafting all the notes for this story. It's going to be long and complex, so it's taking a lot to get through all of the rough outline.

The line where Tikki says to the sleeping Marinette "Sleep well and wake," is a direct nod to/borrow from the book series **Wheel of Time** by Robert Jordan (completed by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's passing). If you enjoy high fantasy and haven't read them, please consider doing so. They are ridiculously well crafted and complex immersive fantasy novels. Just be prepared to commit the next three years or so to reading them. Worth it.

Thanks in this chapter go again to Katie H, without whom this story would be much less well thought out.

~Malkharah


	10. Duty Calls

**Chapter 10: Duty Calls**

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-oOo-

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No matter how bad Marinette thought Wednesday had been, Thursday was so much worse.

Her pantry was basically empty. The only food items available were the raw ingredients for making cookies for Tikki, and there was no time or butter to do that, so she went to work empty handed. She didn't have any specific plan for lunch, but thought she might have something hidden away in her desk at work that she could nibble on at some point.

As she was passing through the lobby on her way out the door, she paused beside the trash can where she had tossed Adrien's ruined umbrella. She felt a renewed sense of loss for the silly thing he'd given her in passing five years ago and that she had treasured ever since, probably more than anyone had ever valued an umbrella, and seriously debated fishing it out of the trash. She poked the handle back and forth, hesitating; it was broken beyond hope for repair. Fishing it from the trash would be a little ridiculous. Decisively but with a little lingering sadness, she walked away from the umbrella.

It was time to let it go and move on.

After being at work for only an hour, she realized that even if she had brought food she would never have been able to get it down. M. Bredeauteau watched her like a vulture watches a dying animal; dark eyes sharp and exuding terrible intent. Her teeth felt on edge and skin crawled with discomfort that only got worse as the hours ticked away. His malicious attention followed her every move, watching for her to slack off for even a moment, before he would swoop down like that vulture and take a chunk out of her hide.

"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, please stay focused on your task." His voice oozed condescension.

"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, now is not the appropriate time for your discussion with your co-worker. We have deadlines to meet." Delivered with a sneer.

"Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng, where are you going at this time?" A sharp glare.

When her lunch period rolled around she was too anxious to even think of getting up from her desk, and worked frantically straight through lunch. She felt sick to her stomach and her head pounded. She ached from hunching over the sewing machine and drafting table in her cubicle. Brushing off all of Claudia's attempts to check on her or try to help, body tense and driving her headache to migraine levels, Marinette worked at one-hundred-fifty percent effort for her full shift.

M. Bredeauteau examined her progress on her project at the end of her shift, and apparently she passed muster. He grunted sourly and handed the garments back to her, dismissing her for the day.

Marinette staggered outside into the early evening rain and took a deep breath of the damp air. The coolness felt good against her throbbing head and helped calm her rolling stomach slightly. She somehow made it home despite her unsteady legs and as soon as she closed the door of her apartment, slumped to the ground over her knees and folded into a child's pose, pressing her forehead to the wooden floorboards.

Tikki freed herself from Marinette's purse and flitted around the young woman's head fretfully. "Marinette, are you okay?"

Marinette's head rocked back and forth in the negative.

"You should get up off the floor." Tikki urged her, gently petting her dark hair. She hated when circumstances drove Marinette to this degree of extreme anxiety. It was painful to see her so sad and tense. "It's cold here. You should change clothes into something comfortable and find something to eat—"

Marinette pressed up and rapidly crawled around the corner into the bathroom. She held together long enough to lift the lid of the toilet before heaving. There was nothing in her stomach to throw up though, so she wound up just spitting bile into the bowl and gagging miserably several times. She hovered uncertainly on her knees for a few minutes trying to decide whether she was done or not, before pressing a hand to her churning belly and flushing the toilet. Tikki brought her the cup she used for rinsing her mouth after brushing her teeth, filled with cool water. She rinsed her mouth out and spat it into the toilet and flushed again while closing the lid, then rested her cheek against the chilled plastic.

Tikki took the cup back to the sink and drained it before setting it aside. "Maybe an early night is in order." She murmured softly, drifting back to Marinette and brushing her bangs off her forehead. She felt too warm, her face pale but cheeks flushed. "Get yourself upstairs and I will bring you a cool cloth for your forehead."

Marinette was able to pull herself to her feet and carefully navigate through the apartment. Upstairs she shed her work clothes into a pile and sluggishly pulled a pair of yoga pants and a comfortable hoodie on before rolling into her blankets. She was so exhausted that sleep came to her quickly. She was never aware of Tikki gently bathing her face with a washcloth and soft words.

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-oOo-

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Adrien's driver dropped him off at the front door of the spa where he met Chloe for their weekly couples' massage appointments. Forgoing the umbrella he carried, he slammed the car door and quickly ducked inside before the rain had a chance to soak him. The smooth action of the heavy glass door admitted him into the warm herbal-scented lobby, where dark wood and potted foliage created a serene ambiance.

"Good evening, Monsieur Agreste." The pretty receptionist smiled at him pleasantly. "How are you?"

"I'm well, Hei-Ran, thank you." Adrien returned her polite smile. He shrugged off the light weight rain jacket he was wearing and passed it to her with a nod of thanks as she came around the counter with a wooden hanger.

"Mademoiselle Bourgeois has already arrived and is waiting in your usual suite." She informed as she placed the coat on the hanger and tucked it away in the closet. "Please, follow me. Can I bring you a cup of Lemongrass White tea?"

"Please." He followed her down the hall past several rooms and around several corners, where she then knocked lightly and opened a door to gesture him inside. Most of the room was lined with tatami mats, with a strip of pale wooden flooring stretching in from the door. Watercolor paintings of cranes and bridges hung on the dark walls, potted bamboo and rice paper screens set about carefully to direct the eye through the room. The receptionist left the door open while she went to retrieve his cup of tea.

Chloe was seated on a low tufted sofa at the far end of the strip of wooden flooring. Her legs were crossed elegantly at the knee and the diffuse light illuminated her figure beautifully, flaxen hair shining against the dark backdrop of the wall and bamboo fronds. She looked up and smiled at him as the door was opened, slipping her phone into her clutch and setting it aside.

" _Mon Amour!_ " She exclaimed brightly and rose gracefully off the couch, crossing the space to lay her hands on his shoulders and pull his face down where she could bestow a brushing kiss on each cheek, then one lingeringly long kiss on his lips.

He smiled at her as he returned to his full height, backing away and passing her to one side so he could sit on the small couch and remove his shoes and socks, careful as he leaned over to not crush Plagg in his pocket. "Hi Chloe, how has your week been?"

She sashayed toward him again, leaning against the arm of the couch and pursing her lips into a tight smile. The air around her smelled too strongly of Chanel Grand Extrait, her favorite perfume of the moment, and the chemical floral cloud began piercing him in the forehead, right between his eyes. "After Monday's fiasco with Carlotta Bocchetti and her ridiculous insistence that she won't agree to cater our wedding until we've decided on a venue and date, things have been getting better." Her expression pinched at the name of the famous Italian chef she kept trying to hire as the caterer for their wedding, and Adrien internalized the wince and long-suffering sigh he wanted to heave: it was going to be one of _those_ conversation days…

The wedding weighed on Chloe heavily and she wanted him to agree to a date that was much sooner than he wanted it. She would have had them throw millions of Euros at it and be married before Christmas in an obscenely lavish ceremony to put the British Royal Weddings to shame. Adrien wanted a more casual wedding, a small one, with his closest friends in attendance. Something small and private in the early summer, not the opulent extravaganza Chloe kept trying to talk him into before the year closed out. They were never going to agree, and Chloe was never going to _lower_ herself to the kind of wedding he would prefer. She felt herself worth only the very best, and that meant the best locale, the best gown, the best food… It all made his head spin.

Before Chloe could continue her complaint about the potential caterer, Hei-Ran glided back into the room with a tea cup and saucer balanced on a pale bamboo tray. She leaned toward him slightly to offer the tea and a polite smile, and he was aware of Chloe bristling beside him. Adrien nodded his thanks as he lifted the saucer from the tray, turning his gaze back to Chloe as a sign she should continue speaking. With his attention focused on her, he found her less likely to have an outburst: she was prone to over reacting any time he interacted with pretty young women. It was worst for some reason when they were pretty young women of Asian descent, with dark hair… He had no idea why, but he was aware of Chloe's fixation against it.

The receptionist was nothing if not good at her job though, and this was not the first time Chloe Bourgeois had given her dark looks. She read the situation, tucked the tray beneath one arm, and walked to the door. "Your masseurs will be with you in a few minutes. Please undress and lay down on the futon, using the towels to cover your selves. I hope you enjoy your massages." She turned and pulled the door shut with a soft click, leaving them alone. Adrien sipped the steaming cup of pale tea, enjoying the gentle flavor.

Chloe sniffed dismissively, as though a bad smell had been cleared from the air. She stood from where she had been leaning against the sofa and began plucking at her cardigan's buttons. "As I was saying, the caterer I want for the wedding won't sign a contract until we've decided on a venue and date. I shared my Pinterest board about the wedding with you; have you looked at my locations category at all yet?"

Adrien stood up and set his tea on a low table so he could shrug off his suit jacket, then draped it over the arm of the sofa. "No. I forgot my password for Pinterest and I haven't reset it yet." He almost felt ashamed of how easily that lie slid off his tongue. He used Pinterest all day every day, looking at humor and ridiculous memes; when he found really funny ones, he sent them to Ladybug using their encrypted messaging app. She often sent him eyeroll and facepalm emojis in response, which made him grin.

Chloe turned to look at him closely and her eyes were searching. After a moment she reached past him to drape her cardigan next to his jacket on the couch. "Could you please help unzip my dress?"

She turned her back to him, pulling the gleaming length of her silvery blonde pony tail away from her neck and exposing the zipper. He took the toggle in his fingers and tugged it down to the small of her back for her, but something about her scent in his nose made him very uncomfortable beyond just the chemically sharp floral perfume. He was cautious not to touch her skin or linger with the zipper too long. "You're good."

She slipped the straps of the dress down her arms and turned to face him as she slid the fabric past her hips. He could see it was a calculated move, lightly sliding her hands against her very slim figure, and her deliberate attempt to be seductive made him feel awkward and self conscious. She stepped out of the dress and watched him undo his own buttons and tug his shirt out of his slacks, while she leaned into his space again to drape the dress on the couch. Her perfume stabbed him in the sinuses again, made more invasive by her increasing attention on him.

Uncomfortable, he turned away from her when he pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the couch, careful to make the motion natural. As he undid his belt, Chloe picked up the conversation again. "Please do that soon, Darling. We really need to set a date soon. All the good places will be taken for next year and we'll have to push the wedding out further to get a suitable venue." Her flimsy bra and panties were tossed on the couch next, directly atop his shirt, and he heard her move away to step up onto the tatami and cloth rustling at the futon.

When he stepped out of his trousers and underwear he swore he could feel her eyes raking across his backside like claws. Because of his work as a model he was not unaccustomed to stripping in front of people; changing clothes backstage at a fashion show he had to swap outfits in less than a minute while other models were doing the same all around him, male and female alike, and stylists were shoving the clothes into his arms and fixing his hair while he was half naked or attacking him with brushes to correct his makeup… But their attention was divided and on their own tasks, and he was almost more like an animated mannequin.

Here, alone with Chloe, the fact that he was naked made him feel so much more exposed… More so even than posing naked for Marinette's drawing class, odd as that was. It didn't make any sense, even in his own mind. _'How can being naked with one person I know for a few minutes be **more** awkward than being naked in front of a group of strangers for hours?'_

He turned after setting the last of his clothes on the couch to catch Chloe leering at him, completely bare and unconcerned about it. She was reclining on one elbow, her other arm draped indolently over her hip, spray-tanned skin gleaming. Dark blue eyes dragged the full length of his body and he felt their weight like a phantom caress. Forcing himself to act completely casual, Adrien picked up his tea cup and stepped up onto the tatami and over to the futon. He knelt and carefully set his tea down, then picked up the towel there and lay down on his belly, draping the towel across his butt.

Once settled he picked up his tea to sip again.

Chloe sighed before copying his motions, lying down and using the small towel to cover her rear. She leaned on her elbows, gazing at him fondly. "I still think it's cute that you're so modest, _mon trésor._ " Her eyes flitted over his naked back, watching how his muscles moved subtly as he drank his tea. "You've been a professional model since you were eleven, I would have thought you'd have lost all your modesty ages ago."

All Adrien could do was shrug. "I just don't enjoy flaunting my body in private. I do that enough in public for the clothes I model."

She smiled again and eased her arms down so she could lay her head on them, face turned towards him. She was about to speak again when there was a soft knock at the door. "Come in."

Their two regular masseurs entered the room and Adrien set his tea aside, and relaxed down onto his folded arms.

Massages were magic for Adrien. The cat in him relished in the physical act of being stroked and petted; it satisfied something left behind in his psyche by the magic of the Miraculous. It almost didn't matter who gave the massage, as long as they had strong hands and were able to really dig into the knots in his muscles, it made him happy. He just relaxed and accepted the massage. He already had a well established relationship and set of expectations with his masseur, so he didn't have to tell the man anything other than that he wanted to focus on his back and shoulders today.

Chloe was a vocal receiver of massages, though. She sighed and moaned a lot, giving verbal encouragement and directing exactly what her masseur should do. Somehow she made it all sound inappropriately sexual.

Adrien did his best to ignore her gasps and exclamations while he relaxed, and the hour long massage passed quickly.

After donning their clothes again, Adrien moving quickly but casually to prevent Chloe's eyes from branding his naked flesh, they moved together down the hall and out to the lobby. He stopped by the desk and spoke briefly with Hei-Ran to confirm their appointment for next week, and retrieve his rain jacket. As he was shrugging it on, he scooped Plagg stealthily from the pocket of his slacks and into the inner breast pocket of the jacket so he'd have more space to get comfortable. As Adrien made that transition, he gently ran this thumb over Plagg's head and felt his kwami nuzzle back lightly.

"You're confirmed for next Thursday, September thirteenth, at six o'clock." The young Korean woman told him, again with a pleasant professional smile. Chloe's arm looped through his and she leaned into his side slightly, icy eyes on the receptionist. Hei-Ran's dark eyes flitted over Chloe coolly once before returning to Adrien. "Have a good week and we'll see you then."

"Thank you, you do the same." Adrien retuned her smile and turned to lead Chloe from the spa lobby, completely missing the dark look she shot at the receptionist in passing.

Out on the sidewalk, Adrien popped open his umbrella to shield them from the rain. Chloe leaned more firmly into his side to fit under the umbrella's canopy with him. "I don't like that receptionist. She's too free with her smiles."

Adrien's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What on Earth are you talking about? She seems perfectly nice, to me."

She sniffed in a way that spoke volumes of her distain for the other woman. "She looks at you like you're a slab of meat. It's inappropriate."

"I've never found her to be anything but completely professional." Adrien assured her. _'And the way you look at me like I'm a piece of meat is okay?'_ Maybe Chloe felt that was her right as his fiancée, but it still bothered him. Seeking to change the topic, Adrien asked Chloe where she wanted to have dinner tonight. Thursdays were their one regularly scheduled night of the week to spend together, so they made a full date night of it. Between his already very busy schedule and her modeling career beginning to take off, their time together was pretty limited. With Fashion Week coming up, time was only going to get shorter.

Chloe pulled him off down the street. "Let's dine at _Le Foyer Vert_." They ambled along through the rain as it was only about a block away, Chloe's body pressed close to his. The fresh air outside kept her perfume from bothering his nose.

When they arrived at the restaurant moments later they were immediately shown to a secluded table toward the rear of the restaurant. Between Adrien's fame and Chloe's connections, their service was perfect. Adrien ordered a glass of wine for himself and Chloe ordered still mineral water. She almost never drank: the extra calories weren't worth it. After requesting a few minutes to look over the menu, the waiter left them alone.

Chloe's dark blue eyes rested heavily on him as he dithered about what he wanted to eat. She didn't make any pretense at leading into the topic on her mind, and the abrupt question blind-sided him. "So, what's going on with Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

Adrien felt clueless at her tone. It was quite neutral, but nevertheless the question from Chloe made him uneasy. "What are you talking about? Nothing's going on: I ran into her on Monday and asked her out to lunch in order to catch up."

Chloe was already reaching for her phone, the plated gold phone case gleaming as she unlocked it and swing it around to face him. She had an article pulled up already, this time from a local tabloid website. There was a photo of him and Marinette at lunch on Monday, again. This one was taken in a different moment from the one he had seen on the television on Tuesday morning. Here he was very obviously smiling at her, and holding the door open for her to step into the restaurant. The article headline snagged his eyes:

 **Adrien Agreste's New Mystery Woman?!**

 **Paris loves to love our home town celebrities and no one is adored more than Adrien Agreste. Teen heartthrob, male supermodel, and charity champion of Agreste Fashions, Adrien (20) was voted overwhelmingly as Paris' Sexiest Man Under 25 earlier this year. Hearts all across the country cracked and crumbled when word came out that he had proposed to his long-time girlfriend Chloe Bourgeois (21, daughter of Parisian Mayor André Bourgeois). Chloe (also a fashion model) is known to loudly exclaim to anyone who will listen how much she adores her beau, but recently we caught word of pictures of Adrien with a mysterious new lady. Who is this dark haired beauty, and how did she catch Adrien's eye?**

He thumbed past the rest of the article looking for more pictures and shaking his head in disgust. "Really Chloe, why on Earth do you read this garbage?"

"Even if all you did was have lunch together, it's still going to spur gossip." Chloe pointed a perfectly manicured finger at her phone, eyes focused on his face. "I told you Tuesday, and you know it already: when you're famous, everything is news-worthy. Everything is a big deal."

Adrien tossed her phone onto the table dismissively. "I know it looks bad, but they're only doing it for the hits. There's nothing exciting to find out about, she's just my friend. The attention will die off after a while when they don't find anything interesting."

The waiter stopped back at the table to take their orders, momentarily halting the conversation. After he left them again, Chloe sighed and leaned back in her chair, eyes dark in the intimately dim lighting of the restaurant. "You saw what was written in the article, though. If they don't find anything interesting, they'll make things up. The only way to avoid the tabloids is to not give them anything to write about."

"I'm not going to let a tabloid control who my friends are." He refolded his napkin in his lap, picking at a seam with his thumb.

"Is she really, though?"

"What?"

Chloe frowned at him, but he could tell from her expression that she wasn't angry or upset. She seemed more worried. "Is she really your friend? We haven't seen or spoken to Marinette in years. Four years… I'm sure she's changed a lot from what we remember of her in high school." She leaned forward to rest a cool hand over his on the table, tucking her fingers into his palm. "I know **we** have changed a lot. We have no idea what she wants out of renewing this friendship with you."

He felt Plagg settle on his knee under the table and the slight weight of the kwami gave him some strength. "Well, we can find out tomorrow!" He tried to make his smile seem positive and engaging.

Her perfectly shaped eyebrows quirked. "What about tomorrow?"

Adrien smiled for her. "Marinette has invited us to dinner at her apartment! I sent you a message on Tuesday, but you never responded… It'll be a perfect chance to catch up, get reacquainted with each other. I know you and she didn't get along well in high school, but when she invited me to taco night, she specifically said I should invite you along as well. I'm sure since we've all changed so much, Marinette is trying to reach out and establish friendship with both of us. Bury whatever hatchet it is you've both been carrying all this time."

It was subtle, but he saw the moment she began to withdraw as he was talking. Faint pale color rose high in her cheeks and she pulled her hand back from his. Her eyes glimmered darkly, and he felt the prickly sting of her irritation in his nose along with her perfume.

Before she could speak, the waiter came back with their salads and Adrien's bowl of crab bisque. The timely interruption seemed to cut off whatever Chloe had been about to say, and for that alone Adrien was thankful for the waiter's timing. The waiter efficiently inquired if they would like freshly cracked black pepper on their salads, which Adrien accepted and Chloe waved away.

After the waiter left again, Chloe began eating her light vegetable salad. After sipping her water, she picked up the conversation once again. "Darling, I had bought us movie tickets for tomorrow."

"What? When?" This was the first he was hearing about it.

She finished chewing her bite of salad, then glanced demurely at her phone on the table top. "I got them weeks ago, when I found out that that science fiction movie you wanted to see was coming out… The one with that guy who does the dinosaur movies, too. I had wanted it to be a surprise."

He slumped in his seat slightly. "Chloe… I already accepted Marinette's invitation. I can't make it to her dinner party and to the movies the same night. Can't we go to the movie another time?"

"Tomorrow is the premier." She insisted. "The tickets are only good for the one time."

Plagg began purring on his knee, hearing Adrien's distress. He put his left hand below the table and Plagg clambered into this palm, nuzzling against his fingers in a show of solidarity. Adrien set his spoon down, trying to rearrange his schedule in his thoughts. "What time does the movie start?"

"Oh, I don't recall the exact time." Chloe gestured dismissively with the hand that wasn't holding her fork. "Somewhere around seven o'clock. I'll text you the details after dinner."

Frustrated, Adrien finished off his soup and began stabbing the lettuce, cheese and nuts on his salad plate. It didn't taste as good as he may have liked, as her perfume was beginning to interfere with his sense of taste, too. Every bite was tainted by Chanel Grand Extrait. "Chloe, I wish you had told me about this sooner, so I could plan for it. I can't fit in surprise dates; you know my schedule is already packed. That I had Friday free at all was unusual."

"Oh I know, but I wanted to surprise you!" She was clearly not hearing his frustration.

"But I accepted Marinette's invitation first. I don't want to flake out on her."

The façade of even pleasantness she had been maintaining cracked slightly. Voice sharpened by what Adrien perceived as disappointment, she snapped, "But you'll flake out on **me**?"

Plagg's purring amped up a notch. Adrien could feel his little tail lashing back and forth against his wrist. "Chloe, that's not fair. I didn't know about—"

The waiter finally stopped by again, saving Adrien from trying to soothe her irritation for a few moments. There was a faint piercing throb behind his right eye, the beginnings of a migraine. He offered the waiter a smile of thanks for the delivery of his Chicken Marsala served over farfalle and a large heap of roasted broccolini. Chloe didn't acknowledge the waiter at all as he set down her small serving of grilled chicken and broccolini, her eyes focused on Adrien with cool calculation. When the waiter left after granting Adrien a generous amount of freshly grated Parmeseano Regiano, he cringed expecting Chloe to begin carving into him about tomorrow night again.

Chloe merely picked up her knife and fork and applied her carving skills to her dinner instead, choosing to change the subject back to her favorite topic: the wedding.

Adrien relaxed slightly. He listened to her talk as he ate mostly in silence, making sounds of acknowledgement or offering his opinion when asked for, and they ate the rest of their dinner without further conflict. Half way through dinner Adrien sent off a text to have a driver come retrieve them in a small limo. The limo was a gesture purely to further pacify Chloe: she preferred to be chauffeured around in limousines rather than the less flashy town cars.

As they pulled up in front of Le Grand Paris Hotel, Chloe gathered up her purse and pulled on her light jacket after peeling herself away from his side. While she waited for the door man to approach with an open umbrella for her, Chloe turned to Adrien and rested a hand on his knee with a direct look into his eyes. "About Marinette…" She paused, making sure she had his full attention. "Just be cautious in how you interact with her. We don't know what she wants from you."

"She doesn't want anything, Chloe." Adrien tried to assure her. Chloe's generally mistrustful nature was in full force tonight. He could only guess it had something to do with her old rivalry with Marinette rearing its ugly head again after all this time. "Really she doesn't. On Monday, I was the one who approached her. She had no idea I would be at her campus and she was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her. She was one of my first friends in public school, and I just want to renew that friendship."

She nodded through his explanation, mouth drawn into a subtle moue and eyebrows crinkled slightly in concern. "I understand that was your motivation, _mon trésor_. Her motivation for accepting may be different. Even so, even **if** it's all innocent as you say and she also just wants to be friends… The media will **not** interpret it that way." She glanced at the window when the doorman rapped a knuckle softly against the glass to let her know her umbrella was ready, and gestured at him to wait there a moment. Turning back to Adrien, she continued, "This can look very bad if the media decides to take it in a scandalous direction. It can look bad for you, bad for me, and also very bad for Marinette. They can choose to paint her as a floozy who's coming between us, and that looks terrible to everyone. It would impact her career."

Adrien frowned, realizing that Chloe's argument was not wrong. It was actually all very true. He sighed, deflating slightly and leaning back into his seat. "Okay. I hear your point. I'll put some thought into it and be careful."

She shifted and leaned into him, her hand on his knee sliding up over his thigh and tickling across his stomach to land on his chest. "That's all I ask, my love." She murmured, pressing a cool kiss of farewell to each of his cheeks, then a last lingering one to his mouth, each of which he returned.

Her perfume in the closed space of the car flavored her kisses with a sharp chemical taint that drove a spike of discomfort through his sinuses and into his eyes again, his headache throbbing uncomfortably now. He granted her one last warm press of lips, and then leaned back again. "Have a good night, Chloe."

She smiled at him and patted her slender hand against his chest before leaning back and pulling the door handle. "Good night, Darling. I'll see you tomorrow for the movie. I'll text you the details later." The doorman held the umbrella for her and she was out and gone into the night.

.

-oOo-

.

Inside the warmly lit lobby, Chloe Bourgeois ignored the greetings offered to her by the hotel staff and pressed her phone to her ear. After two rings, the call was answered.

 _"Hi Chloe, I was just on my way—"_

"Never mind that, Ethan. I have an emergency: I need you to get two tickets for me for a showing of _The Origin_ , tomorrow around seven o'clock." She stepped into the elevator as she listened to the rustle of him moving and eventually the soft clicking of his laptop.

He sighed at the other end of the call. _"That's going to be difficult. Tomorrow night is the premier."_

"I don't care what you have to do, or how much it costs." She snapped, stepping from the elevator and striding down the hall to her suite in her father's hotel. "Go to the cinema and camp out all night if that's what it takes, but get me those tickets!"

There was a pause before he asked, _"How many do you need?"_

"Two. Make sure they're good seats."

 _"I'll get on it right away. Do you need anything else from me this evening?"_

Chloe unlocked the door to her suite and stepped through, closing it behind her. "No, just get me the information for those tickets as soon as you can." She threw her keys and purse on her table as she disconnected the call. Trusting that Ethan would be able to deliver, Chloe doffed her clothing and began drawing herself a bath.

As she waited for the tub to fill, she thought over her evening with Adrien. His renewed interest in Marinette Dupain-Cheng was troubling to her. She was not pleased that her precious treasure was trying to establish a friendship with another woman, especially since that woman was her rival from all those years ago. Not pleased at all: Marinette had always had a habit of getting in her way and spoiling her plans. Chloe would **not** tolerate her getting in the way again.

.

-oOo-

.

As soon as Chloe was out of the limousine, Plagg erupted from Adrien's pocket and darted to the button for the sunroof. "Oh my god, I don't care if it's raining; open all the windows!" He pushed on the button and the sunroof tilted up to admit fresh damp air and the sound of the wind as the limo pulled back into traffic on its way toward Adrien's condo. He pushed his little face into the opening, breeze ruffling his fur. "That woman reeks!"

Agreeing with the kwami, Adrien jabbed a finger down on the window controls next to him as Plagg darted to the other side of the car and lowered that window too. The cool air felt good on his face and breathing the freshness of the outside helped his migraine immediately. He rested his forehead against the side of the car and closed his eyes, enjoying the breeze that tossed his hair and not caring that his suit was getting damp from the rain coming in.

Plagg landed on his chosen's knee and looked up at Adrien's too pale face. His eyebrows were pinched slightly with discomfort and Plagg frowned. "How's your head?"

Adrien sighed, breath fogging the glass near his face. "My brain hurts and my eyes sting."

"Yeah, mine too." Plagg commiserated. He huffed, expelling the tainted air from his tiny lungs. "She put her clothes on your clothes. Your clothes even reek of her perfume."

Adrien just grunted softly.

It wasn't long before they were back at his condo. Plagg hid in his coat pocket again while Adrien thanked the limo driver for coming out with one of the Agreste company's fleet cars to drive them around, then darted through the light rain to the door of his condominium building. He moved through the lobby quickly and hit the button for the west elevator, eyes turned down and away from the bright lights overhead. Inside, he inserted his key and hit the button for the top floor while Plagg floated free and sat on his shoulder, tiny hand gripping the lapel of Adrien's jacket.

The key made access to his condo restricted: without it there was no access to the top floor, so it served as a mostly private entrance. When the bright chime of the elevator announced his arrival home, Adrien passed through the foyer and into the hall that led to his bedroom, head throbbing and not bothering to turn on any lights. He prepared for bed in the dark, leaving his clothes behind in the bathroom after his quick shower to wash the perfume and massage oil off and segregate the odor away from his sleeping area.

He rolled naked into his sheets after tugging the heavy curtains closed around the bed and sighed as his body relaxed slowly into the cool cotton. No longer taking in the perfume with every breath, his migraine began to recede fairly quickly. Plagg settled onto a pillow beside him, curling into a tiny ball and purring softly as Adrien fell asleep.

Three hours later, Plagg was pushing on Adrien's face to wake him. "Wake up, kid. You're on duty."

"What?" Adrien's eyes rolled blearily toward the tiny clock on the shelf of his headboard. 1:37 in the morning. "What's going on?"

"Time to go meet Ladybug." Plagg told him, pulling back the nearest curtain of the bed. "You've got work to do. There's an active akuma."

.

-oOo-

.

 _ **Author's Note:**_ _I hope you enjoyed this installment of Drawn Together! Here we finally meet Chloe of the present in person, and she's an interesting character. She's expressed some concerns about Adrien renewing his friendship with Marinette (I wonder why? ~_^) and is trying her very best to monopolize Adrien's time so he can't make it for tacos! So sad: smol cat son needs tacos. And poor Marinette's anxiety has made her really sick. How will she handle this upcoming akuma battle?_

 _As always, I appreciate you reading! Please take the time to leave me a review if you enjoyed it, or have some interesting thoughts and observations to relay. I love reading your reviews and I try my best to respond to all reviews that I can. They always make me smile and give me the warm squishies._

 _Thanks again go to Katie H for being my writing buddy. While I do my writing she works on hers, and we help each other be better writers. This story couldn't be what it is without her help. Also, I extend my thanks to ArtemisWinter for helping out as my beta reader: she is WAY better at finding dumb typos than I will ever be, and I appreciate her attention and hard work._

 _Next time you get to see the full rehash of the akuma battle and its fallout, Marinette's crappy morning, and Adrien being moody and dramatic while getting free pastries and posing naked (not at the same time)._

 _Until next time, my dears!_

 _~Malkharah_


	11. The Futility of Resolve

**Chapter 11: The Futility of Resolve**

.

-oOo-

.

Chat Noir could tell immediately when Ladybug swung onto the scene of the very early morning akuma battle that she was not in peak condition. Her eyes were bleary and face wan, and her legs seemed to shake when she landed beside him facing the latest creation of Hawk Moth.

"Let's make this quick, _Chaton_." She murmured, cheeks rosy beneath her mask.

"You alright, M'Lady?" He asked, hand hovering half way between holding his baton and reaching to steady her. "You're looking a little shaky."

She blinked hard before visibly firming her stance by straightening her back and squaring her shoulders. "I'll be alright. I'm just… having a rough week. Let's send this akuma packing."

He smirked and nodded to her with a flirtatious wink. "As you wish." Chat dove forward off the roof and bounced off a striped awning to meet their foe of the hour.

Free Wheel was akumatized because her car had been booted by the police due to an illegal parking job. She was waving a broken off radio antenna around like a magic wand causing cars to drive on their own and throwing a tire iron like a giant ninja star. The fight itself would have been simple beyond reason if Ladybug was in anything like her usual fighting shape.

Chat kept a careful eye on Ladybug throughout the whole fight. She had the good sense to stay back and let him handle the physical part of the confrontation, since she wasn't feeling well. But there was one point in the battle while he was in close combat with her, where Free Wheel's eyes gleamed as she glanced past Chat Noir's shoulder.

Chat saw the flying tire iron he had dodged circling back around like a boomerang, and it was aimed straight at the back of Ladybug's head.

"Ladybug, watch out!" He kicked the akuma in the chest to knock her off balance, sprinted and dove into Ladybug's stomach, wrapping his arms around her head and shoulders to cradle her as they rolled to a stop against the base of a street light. He pulled back to look at her, unable to overlook the beauty of her wet hair sticking to her face like ribbons of ink and the raindrops sparkling in her tangled eyelashes. He also couldn't help noticing in his proximity how very pale she looked, the feverish flush in her cheeks, and the bleary unfocussed quality of her eyes, dimmer than he thought he'd ever seen them. She'd said she was fine earlier, but she was obviously very ill. "Have you spotted the cursed object?" Asking her if she was alright would be pointless; she would deny anything was wrong. They just had to resolve this fight quickly so she could get out of the rain and back to her boyfriend and her warm bed. That thought made his mouth purse in distaste.

She blinked slowly, struggling a bit to focus on his face, before sitting up and almost head-butting him in the process because she neglected to push him away before doing so. "The antenna;" She told him, rubbing her dripping bangs out of her face with one hand. "It's in the radio antenna."

"I'll go fetch it for you, M'Lady, then we can give this akuma the boot." He pulled her to her feet and made sure she was steady before leaping back at the akuma, who finally spotted them again when they stood up. Chat whacked the incoming tire iron away with a quick swing of his baton and rushed into close quarters with Free Wheel again, invoking his Cataclysm on the way. With a few quick swipes and a well placed trip, courtesy of his baton, his claws finally met the antenna and it immediately rusted and crumbled into bits.

The akuma fluttered free of the pieces and tried to flee the scene, but Ladybug's yoyo struck true, capturing it before it could get lost in the night. Free Wheel stumbled backwards and sat down hard on the wet pavement. The dark magic rolled over her like a fog and suddenly a very confused looking young woman with short brown hair was blinking up at him.

"What happened?" She murmured. Behind him, Chat heard Ladybug bidding the cleansed akuma farewell.

"You were Hawk Moth's latest victim." Chat soothed as he helped her to her feet.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" A flush of red and white magic light swept over the scene, resetting cars in their parking spots and undoing damage wrought to the surrounding street and buildings.

With the roads repaired, the emergency vehicles were able to quickly arrive on site. Chat saw the woman into the care of the EMTs before making his way to where Ladybug was leaning against that same lamp post.

She smiled when he rejoined her, but he could see her heart wasn't in it. "Sorry I wasn't much help tonight, _Chaton_."

"No worries, M'Lady. I can see you're not in good shape." His ring gave a beep, indicating he had just three minutes left to escape the scene. He offered her his elbow in a show of chivalry she would normally ignore, but tonight she accepted the offered support. He felt a warm flutter in his belly as she tucked her slender hand into the crook of his arm, tender delight which quickly became tense worry when she actually leaned on him for support to walk.

Chat guided them away from the emergency vehicles and the scene of the fight and into a dark alley where they would be hidden from view. His ring sounded again: two minutes remaining.

"Will you be alright getting home, LB? I can tell you're not feeling well." He frowned slightly in concern. "I could take you close to home if you'll give me a few minutes to recharge."

"No, it's okay. I'll be alright," She assured him, patting his forearm with her other hand before letting go and stepping away. "I'm not far from home now, actually. I'll be fine."

"Make sure you're not pushing yourself too hard, M'Lady. A cold or fever can be serious if you leave it unchecked." He tried to keep his tone neutral when he added, "Make sure that boyfriend of yours is taking care of you too."

She tilted her head. "Boyfriend?"

He hesitated, unsure of her tone. "Yeah, your boyfriend. He should be playing nurse for you! Say, it's about time for your third anniversary about now, isn't it? Have anything fun planned?"

Ladybug blinked at him slowly, shaking her head as a shiver shook her slim frame. He realized suddenly in the dim light of the alley how thin she actually was now; hollows filled with shadow below her suit-clad collar bones and under the dome of her now visible ribs where her flat stomach sloped to meet the subtle peaks of her hip bones. Their suits left very little to the imagination and he couldn't believe he'd never noticed how thin she had become recently. Because of her attitude and air of authority she always seemed so strong, so invincible. To see her thin, sick and frail made him horribly worried for her, and he felt guilty he hadn't noticed before now.

She blinked up at him, incredibly blue eyes darkened to near cobalt in the shadows of the alley. "I don't have a boyfriend any more, Chat." She told him. He felt slightly sick. "We broke up months ago."

His ring beeped again. One minute.

She peered at his ring to confirm the remaining time and shivered again. "I'm sorry again about how useless I was tonight. Be safe getting home. Stay dry!"

She launched her yoyo up into the air and was gone.

Chat didn't notice when his suit fell away and he was Adrien again. He remained staring after Ladybug's vanished form, cold rain soaking through the sweatshirt he'd thrown on over his pajamas.

Plagg landed on his shoulder and patted him on the neck. "Let's get home and out of this rain, kid. I don't like being wet."

Adrien's shoulders finally slumped and he bowed his head, numbly flipping up his hood to protect Plagg from the steadily falling rain. He began walking. _'When did they break up? What happened? Back in May, when she seemed quieter than usual? She never said anything though… Of course she didn't, she never wants to share things about our personal lives. This means she was single for weeks before I proposed to Chloe in June…'_

Chest hollow and a sick feeling in his gut, he trudged home while wondering how he could have possibly missed such an important set of details.

.

-oOo-

.

When Marinette woke the following morning, her whole body ached as if she'd been run over by a tank. Her throat burned and coughing from the scratchy discomfort lanced throbbing pain from the base of her skull forward into her eyes.

Tikki flitted over from the plant wall when she heard Marinette's groan of misery. "Oh, Marinette, I wish you would have taken a hot shower after we got back. All that cold rain in the middle of the night…" She pressed her tiny forehead against Marinette's flushed face to test her for fever, the dark haired woman shivering at the touch. "How are you feeling?"

Marinette tugged her blankets more tightly around her, unable to get warm. She considered the question with a brain full of cotton before announcing in a leaden voice, "I'm dying."

Tikki chuckled softly at her. "You're not dying, but you are very sick." She drifted to the night stand and picked up the thermometer that she'd retrieved from Marinette's medicine cabinet. "Here, open up."

Tikki gently slipped the end of the thermometer under Marinette's tongue, then stroked her tiny hand against her bangs while they waited for the readout. "39.4 degrees."

No wonder her head felt like it was in a vice. "I have class this morning."

"Marinette, you should stay in bed today and rest." Tikki dropped the thermometer back on the table and tried to help pull the quilts up as Marinette began pushing them off.

"I have to make it to work today; I'll rest when I'm dead."

"Marinette, that is not funny!" Tikki reprimanded her, giving up on the blankets.

Marinette shivered violently when she sat up. Her sweatshirt had pushed up in the night and her lower back was exposed to the cool air of the room. She tugged a loose throw blanket around her shoulders to hold in some warmth, but it barely helped. "I know. I'm sorry. But I can't miss work today. Monsieur Bredeauteau will fire me."

Tikki wrung her little hands. "At least stay home from class. One missed art class won't have much impact."

Marinette began shaking her head, but stopped when it made her brain slosh like an overfull bucket. "No. Class is important, too." She would never in her life lose the opportunity to gaze upon Adrien's god-like naked body. It was too beautiful to miss out on. "I have to go. I'll be able to sleep this weekend."

She could see from Tikki's frown and larger than usual eyes that she was desperately worried for her. "I'll be okay, Tikki. I'll take some Tylenol to bring the fever down and I promise I'll sleep in tomorrow."

The tiny goddess just shook her head. "Please go easy on yourself. You're not well."

"I promise."

Throwing the blankets off and setting her feet on the cold ground was almost enough to change her mind. Tikki was quick to grab her slippers for her and move them into position as Marinette finally glanced at the clock.

8:49… Figure Drawing started in eleven minutes!

What followed was the most unpleasant and hectic fifteen minutes Marinette had experienced in a long while. She tried to move quickly to dash down her stairs but her feverish body was weak and unresponsive; she lurched to the top of the steps and made it half way down before her knees quaked and she had to half fall into the wall to keep herself from tumbling the rest of the way down. Head swimming and limbs like lead weights, she managed to cross the apartment to her bathroom and with Tikki's help locate the bottle of acetaminophen. She choked down three tablets and some water, then almost cried when she realized she hadn't grabbed socks for herself to wear.

Tikki kindly retrieved a pair of socks for her from the loft while she quickly gathered all her art things. She threw her purse on and decided to leave her backpack behind today, as she honestly didn't think she currently had the strength to carry it and her art board and tackle box. Tikki reappeared with a pair of powder pink socks for her, which she quickly pulled on before stuffing her feet in her pink and grey trainers. She tugged on her dark grey rain jacket and Tikki snuggled into the pouch pocket of her sweatshirt before she zipped the rain jacket up to her chin.

Arms full and head pounding, Marinette locked her apartment and ran for class.

.

-oOo-

.

Friday morning's weather followed the weekly trend. It was a mottled sky with darker patches and moderate rainfall. The clouds hung low overhead, heavy and close with an occasional distant rumble of thunder.

Adrien's mood fit the weather this morning.

In a word, he felt sullen.

By the time he had gotten home after the akuma battle early this morning he was soaked through. It had taken a few tugs on the hair behind his ear, but eventually Plagg was able to draw his attention to a 24 hour convenience shop where he purchased a small sack of tiny cheeses, individually dipped in wax. Plagg's lip curled at the mass produced low quality cheese, but he didn't actually complain while he ate it, hiding inside Adrien's hood. Any port in a storm, after all…

By the time they'd found a hidden place for Adrien to transform, they had walked several blocks in the rain. His sweatshirt was heavy and clung uncomfortably to his torso, pajama pants twisted and stuck to his legs and trainers squishing wetly.

Once home he de-transformed and peeled the clothes off, then plopped the whole dripping mess into the sink in his bathroom before running through a hot shower again to take the chill out.

This morning he woke up to the early predawn dimness and rain pattering against his windows, with last night's revelation weighing heavily on his mind.

 _'Ladybug is no longer in a relationship, but even more out of reach than she's ever been.'_ He rolled onto his side, careful not to disturb Plagg on his pillow, and tugged back the heavy curtain around his bed so he could look at the rain. _'Really though… Even though Ladybug is single, that doesn't mean she would want to date you. You're engaged to Chloe; you can't see Ladybug when you're engaged to someone else. Don't even think about it. Don't be a shit bag.'_

Frustrated with his own useless thoughts and feeling mopey, he rolled out of bed and ran through his morning stretching routine before fixing his hair and getting dressed for the gym. His trainer ran him through a grueling Olympic rings routine that did a phenomenal job of keeping him from sulking too much. Though in his distraction he did miss a turn and lose his grip, flopping heavily onto the mats several feet down, breath rushing out of him on a wheeze. His trainer made him do fifty burpees as punishment for botching the rings maneuver.

Arms feeling like noodles, he ran though yet another shower and got dressed for his day. It was as he was standing in line at the coffee shop near the Art College campus that his thoughts finally turned away from morose pouting about his complicated mess of a love life (or lack thereof) and toward Chloe's concerns regarding his friendship with Marinette and his schedule conflict.

 _'What am I going to do about tonight?'_ He wondered. _'I was really looking forward to having tacos at Marinette's house, and seeing Nino and Alya again now that they're back in France. But Chloe's gone and sprung this movie date on me… She knows I never have Fridays free, why would she plan something knowing I probably wouldn't be able to make it?'_ His turn to approach the barista came and he placed his order, oblivious to the young man behind the counter making eyes at him. He was much too deep in his own mind to perceive the flirtatious wink or appreciative sweep of eyes over his body as he walked down the counter to wait for his order.

 _'But then, maybe Chloe is right and I shouldn't try to renew that friendship. I would never want to have a negative impact on Marinette's career… And if the tabloids do write uncomplimentary things, it could easily get out of hand. Maybe I should start distancing myself…'_ The very thought of not being friends with Marinette though, now that he had found her again, made his insides pinch uncomfortably. _'But I really **was** looking forward to tacos! And seeing Nino and Alya! Man, what am I going to do about tonight?'_

His thoughts just kept running in circles until he collected his coffee. He was surprised when the girl called his name, because he had ordered his standard latte but there was a paper bag beside it with his name written in messy cursive.

"Excuse me," he flagged the girl over who had called his name. "I didn't order this." He fingered the top of the bag.

"Oh, it's on the house." She smiled at him widely, gesturing at the guy manning the cash register who waved and winked when he saw them looking. "Marc noticed that you looked down when you placed your order, so this is just a little something extra to pick you up!"

"Wow, thank you!" Adrien smiled at the girl and the guy at the register. Both of them suddenly blushed and their scents seemed to sparkle with happiness amongst the warm roasted aroma of the coffee shop.

"Oh." The girl sighed. "You're so welcome. Come back soon!"

"Thanks, I will!" Feeling a little better about the world, Adrien peeked into the bag after selecting a tiny table in a corner of the shop where he could enjoy his treat. A glossy looking cream cheese Danish awaited him. Mouth watering at the sweet bready smell, he fished it out and tore it in half, passing part to Plagg who was hiding in his lap, eyes big and tiny hands reaching for the pastry.

They savored the Danish, it wasn't the kind of thing he chose to eat often, and he'd scrolled through Pinterest for a few minutes on his phone while Plagg groomed his hands and whiskers. Adrien rose and tossed the trash in the nearby bin, then stepped back out into the rain with a friendly wave to the baristas behind the counter. This was a nice coffee shop: he would be back.

At the University Campus, he jogged lightly up the steps to the art building and through the doors. He couldn't help but raise his head and scent the air. All he caught was the expected scents of the art building: cool earthy clay, sharp turpentine, and musty charcoal. No warm sweetness; Marinette wasn't here yet.

He made his way to the art room upstairs and greeted the instructor as he passed through on his way to the office to change. When he emerged ready to begin class he realized immediately that Marinette still was not there. He felt a brief moment of relief because he wouldn't have to face her yet, then immediately felt bad about being relieved. Not that he could have spoken to her anyway: they had their fiction of anonymity to maintain, since he was in the robe already and about to become the nude model for her to draw. _'I don't know what to do about tonight anyway, so it's not like I'd have anything intelligent to say to her. Maybe I can show up before the movie to see Nino and Alya, then duck out early in order to make it to Chloe's movie date… Then go back after incase they're still playing games? No, I'll miss out on dinner, and Chloe will certainly want to go out to eat after the movie is over. Can I turn down Chloe for the movie, and just go to Marinette's like I originally planned? Tell her to take a friend to the movie instead? No no no, Chloe doesn't have friends. And she would make me regret skipping out on the date with her, probably forever. Ugh…'_

Adrien spent a few minutes mulling over his clashing plans for the evening, then chatting with the instructor while they waited for the last students to wander in. Five minutes past the hour as Madame Fortier was preparing to shut the studio door, Marinette finally burst into the room. She was sweating and breathing hard and unsteady on her feet, and Adrien immediately wanted to go to her and see if she would be okay. He couldn't though. _'You're the model right now, you're in the robe so you're not her friend. Should you even be her friend? UGH! I hate this; I hate questioning myself constantly! Why can't things ever be simple?'_

He remained where he was as he watched her stagger to an easel and slough off her art supplies, the black girl who was obviously her friend helping her when she needed it. Her rain coat crinkled noisily as she dropped all her items and set herself up for class, dragging an extra stool across the floor to her easel and unpacking all her supplies. Annoyance from the other artists prickled in his nose as they also watched the spectacle Marinette presented.

Frowning with concern, he realized her face was not getting any less flushed from her apparent headlong rush into class, and actually she was very pale; her skin looked horribly waxy with all the redness concentrated in the apples of her cheeks. He had seen Marinette blush enough times recently, and in their year as classmates, to realize that this was not a healthy normal blush for her. He tried to find her scent in the air, but all he was catching was the prickly irritation of the other artists.

Marinette finally realized what a racket she was making and sank onto her stool… Sank was wrong; really she collapsed. She glanced at him and made brief eye contact. Her cheeks became redder and the rest of her face turned more ashen, before dropping her eyes to the ground. Her friend finally approached with a smock and helped her remove her raincoat to put the protective garment on.

Adrien heard his cue from the instructor and that diverted his attention. He mechanically kicked off his slippers and shed his robe before stepping up onto the platform and clambering up the ladder that had been set up to grasp one of the ropes hanging overhead forming a visually interesting action pose, concerns lingering with the dark haired girl.

Marinette was obviously sick.

Her eyes were glassy and unfocused. She swayed slightly on her stool and her arm was unsteady as she picked up her charcoal and began to work. With stolen glances Adrien watched her struggle as he remained perfectly still for the artists to draw him. _'I can't go to her, and I can't help her, and I can't ask if she's okay… Just like Ladybug this morning; so sick and I can't do anything to help. Some friend I am! Chloe's right, I can't do anything good for Marinette, not without making things awkward and having it be taken weirdly or badly. I don't want paparazzi harassing her for knowing me, and I definitely don't want our acquaintance to affect her career. I probably should try to keep my distance, at least somewhat… But we **are** friends, and I still want to hang out with her! What should I do?!' _

The instructor's alarm sounded and Adrien shifted poses, climbing back down the ladder and selecting a prop from the nearby table. He crouched and leaned the staff against his shoulder, looking down at the ground in thought. _'The problem would be solved if only Chloe and Marinette could be cordial with each other: if Chloe would come with, it wouldn't look so bad for me to hang out at Marinette's house. Chloe hates Marinette, though. She would never do it.'_

Resignedly he decided that, for the good of everyone involved, he would have to pass on going to Marinette's house tonight. He would send Chloe a message later to let her know he would be there for the movie. His resolve didn't stop the regret he felt at the decision to not work toward rekindling his friendship with the quiet, talented girl.

The next hour of the class passed in a blur he didn't pay much attention to, lost in his own thoughts as he was.

When class concluded, Adrien left the art studio without so much as glancing in Marinette's direction. If he was going to keep some distance, he had to do it in his own thoughts as well, or it would never work. Stolen glances would be just as bad if the paparazzi caught them as hanging out at her apartment, and possibly worse.

He reentered the office he was using as a changing room and put his clothes back on. He took the time to retie his Converse and straighten his hair out, gather up his things, then throw his jacket around his shoulders and slip his arms into the sleeves. Shouldering his bag carefully so Plagg's nap wouldn't be interrupted, he left the office, resolved that he would quickly let Marinette know he couldn't make it to her place for tacos and that he wouldn't allow himself to engage in extended conversation with her.

As he walked down the hall back toward the studio he worked on tapping out his message to Chloe, letting her know he would meet her for the movie as she wanted. Part way through composing that message he heard a soft thud, followed by gasps and exclamations. Frowning, he picked up his pace and pulled open the door, looking for the cause of the commotion.

It was immediately apparent.

Through the legs of the small crowd gathered near one of the easels he was able to see that someone had collapsed to the floor.

Adrien's gut twisted sickeningly.

On the cement floor of the studio, looking small and broken, lay the unconscious body of a too-thin young woman with midnight hair.

Sudden dread made all his previous resolutions immediately evaporate from his mind and his stomach clenched sickeningly. His phone clattered to the ground having slipped from numb fingers, message to Chloe unsent and forgotten.

"MARINETTE!"

.

-oOo-

.

 _ **Author's Note:** Here's the most recent chapter! I am both sorry for the cliff hanger and not sorry... I promise it resolves well in Chapter 12! Also sorry that it's taken such a long time to post this: real life happened (helped my brother move, traveled for work, Thanksgiving happened), so my writing time got cut into. Also, just being lazy and playing too much Skyrim._

 _All my love to the folks who review! It always makes my day to see an email pop up on my phone telling me I have a new review, so please let me know what you think. It's helpful to receive thoughtful and constructive feedback._

 _As always, my thanks also go to **Katie H** for being my writing buddy and sounding board, and to **ArtemisWinter** for beta-ing to find all my typos. _

_Next time you can expect to see the resolution to Marinette's passing out, Adrien being awkward, and the arrival of Alya and Nino for the Taco Night That Will Not Be._

 _Happy Holidays!_

 _~Malkharah_


	12. An Unexpected House Call

**Chapter 12: An Unexpected House Call**

.

-oOo-

.

Adrien dropped his bag on the floor and practically dove through the gathered crowd of concerned artists, shouldering people aside without care before dropping to his knees and reaching for his friend. He almost snatched her out of the hands of the young woman who was gently patting her cheeks and trying to revive her.

"Marinette! Marinette, c'mon, you have to wake up!" He realized as he gathered her to him that his own hands were shaking and his heart was pounding in his ears. _'Wake up wake up wake up you have to be okay please wake up! Don't do this to me, I'm sorry I wasn't paying enough attention to you, I should have noticed how sick you are! I'm a terrible friend!'_ He cradled her head and shoulders in his lap with one arm and gently patted her cheek. "C'mon, Marinette."

Over his head he vaguely heard Madame Fortier break through the crowd of people and say in a voice clouded with confusion, "Monsieur Agreste, how do you know Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng?" He was too focused on his friend to bother replying, though.

The young black woman that he'd seen with Marinette in class all week, and who had been trying to rouse the fainted girl, spoke up for him; "They're friends, Madame. They went to school together."

He didn't register any further conversation from them; at that moment, long lashes fluttered against the pale purple crescents under Marinette's eyes, and she groaned in discomfort. "What happened?"

Relief made Adrien flush warmly. "Oh, thank god. You fainted… Are you okay, Marinette?"

Her eyes fluttered open and unfocussed blue pools wandered the ceiling momentarily before finding his concerned gaze. "Adrien?" Her tone was faint and disbelieving. She shivered in his arms, and he realized that despite how pale she was her cheeks were flushed deep red and burned against his palm where he had forgotten he was cradling her face. "What happened? My head hurts." One of her slim hands drifted shakily up toward her forehead.

"You fainted and bumped your head when you fell." The black girl supplied. She was kneeling in front of Adrien on Marinette's other side. She carefully brushed Marinette's bangs back, apologizing when her fingers glanced over the knot of swelling beginning to form near the sick girl's hairline, resulting in a groan and wince. "You're going to have a very impressive shiner. Here we go." She accepted a chemical ice pack wrapped in paper towels from Madame Fortier and gently pressed it against Marinette's head.

Marinette's shivering doubled, teeth chattering before she clenched her jaw to prevent it. She shifted in Adrien's arms and began to carefully sit up, accepting the ice pack and holding it in place. He kept his arm in place to guide her up to a sitting position, and then shifted his hand to the middle of her back between her shoulder blades to lend her support. _'I knew she was sick, I could see it all morning. How could I let her be hurt? I should have been here for her: if I'd been here, she wouldn't have fallen.'_ He shifted on his knees so he could be more comfortable but didn't relinquish contact with his friend.

Around them the crowd of other students began to disburse.

"I'm Claudia Minagawa."

Adrien dragged his worried eyes away from the side of Marinette's head where she held the ice pack and met the young woman's gaze. Her friend gave him a smile and a wave. He slowly released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Adrien Agreste. It's nice to meet you."

Claudia grinned at him lightly. "I know who you are: you're the son of the founder and CEO of Agreste Fashions. I see you in the halls at work sometimes."

He smiled at her. "Oh, you work there too?"

"Yes, Marinette and I are both interns in Teen Fashions. It's nice to finally meet you, too." She leaned back on her heels and prepared to stand. "Mari-honey, I'll put all your things away for you. You stay here with Adrien and take it easy."

"Thanks Claudia." Marinette offered her a wan smile and shuddered again as shivers wracked her body.

As Claudia rose and moved away to pack up their art supplies, Adrien carefully withdrew his hand from Marinette's back long enough to shrug off his rain jacket. He draped it around Marinette's slim shoulders and she glanced at him in surprise. "It's not much, but the lining is warm. I hope it helps."

Her cheeks darkened slightly, and her voice was tremulous when she said, "Thank you. I'm so sorry to be a bother."

He immediately shook his head. "You're no bother. You're my friend. I'm happy to help you." She smiled a little more sincerely this time, but her eyes were still a little glassy and unfocused. "Marinette, I noticed that you feel pretty warm…"

"What are you talking about? I'm freezing!" She protested, tugging his jacket around her shoulders.

He huffed a laugh. "No, I mean I think you have a fever."

"Oh…" She sighed, lowering her ice pack to her lap and pressing her other hand to her own cheek. "Yes… I did wake up with a fever."

"You should have taken the day off and stayed in bed." He couldn't understand why she came to class if she knew she was sick.

Marinette sighed. "I took some Tylenol for the fever this morning. I have to make it through work today."

Adrien was already shaking his head again well before she finished her sentence. "Absolutely not! You have to go to a hospital: you hit your head when you fell."

"No, I can't go to a hospital! I don't have time." Marinette shifted and began trying to climb to her feet. Adrien leapt up to make sure she was steady and wouldn't fall again. "I have to go to work."

"Marinette, head injuries are serious, and a high fever shouldn't be ignored either!" He hovered near her as she staggered over to where Claudia was just finishing packing up their things. "Please go to a doctor!"

She ignored him as she shrugged off his rain jacket and passed it back to him, then began to take off her art smock, plucking at the ties and tugging her arms from the sleeves. She was able to get the smock off, but when she reached for her own rain jacket her knees buckled. If Adrien hadn't been right there, she certainly would have hit the floor again. Reacting without thought, he scooped her legs out from under her and lifted her off her feet. She seemed to weight next to nothing, and that made his heart pinch.

Her eyes were large and shiny when she stared at him in shock, lips parted in a small "o" of surprise. He shifted her more closely against his chest for a more secure grip, and gave her a look of exasperation. "You need a doctor."

Her surprise faded as her brows drew together and lips closed to a pout. "I'm not going to a hospital."

Adrien rolled his eyes. _'Was she always this stubborn?'_ "Claudia, can you please talk some sense into your friend?"

Claudia was looking at them with the utmost amusement in her dark eyes. Her smile was apologetic. "Sorry, but I have another class to get to after this, and I have to attend it: there's a test."

Adrien frowned slightly in thought; his heart still heavy with a nagging sense of guilt that he knew was a bit irrational but was still very real for him. _'I could see that she wasn't well, and I was still going to walk away from her, just because of Chloe's unfounded fears about my renewed friendship with her. I could never forgive myself if I let Marinette go and she was injured further, or if she became even sicker because she won't rest and recover. If I'd been paying more attention, if I had come back to talk to her instead of putzing around in that office and avoiding her, I would have been right there when she fainted to catch her. I feel like it's my fault she hit her head… I have to make that up to her.'_

Realizing what he had to do, Adrien nodded in acceptance. "Okay, I'll take you home. I'll call my personal physician to come over and have a look at you."

"That's not necessary!" Marinette began squirming in his arms, trying to get down. Adrien simply tightened his grip on her to be sure she was secure. "Really, I'm fine!"

He frowned at her in disbelief. "Marinette, you have a fever high enough that you fainted. You hit your head on the concrete ground. You haven't stopped shivering. Your face is flushed and you're obviously exhausted." He adjusted his grip on her when she stopped wiggling. "You really should go to a hospital."

"No hospitals!"

"Then at least let me take you to an Urgent Care." He wheedled.

Marinette pursed her lips stubbornly and pressed the icepack back against her growing goose egg. "No. Put me down."

Gauging her determination Adrien decided to comply so that she wouldn't get more upset with him. He carefully lowered her feet to the ground and let her find her balance, though he kept his eye on how steady she appeared. Just as he was about to ask why she was so determined to not take the day off of work, Claudia approached with both of their portfolio bags slung over her shoulders and Marinette's tackle box clunking against her own.

"Here are your things, Marinette." Claudia handed Marinette's purse to her. Marinette accepted it and pulled the slim strap across her body, hand carefully cradling the weight of it against her hip for a moment. Standing on her own again, Adrien noticed she had already begun to shiver. "I'll put your portfolio bag in my locker and you can get it back for class on Monday." She passed Marinette her rain jacket as well. As the unsteady girl began pulling it on, Claudia said, "I'm sorry I can't stay and be more help, but I have to get to my next class. Thank you for taking care of her, Adrien."

"It's no trouble." He assured her. "Stay here just a sec? I need to grab my bag." It was still sitting on the floor where he'd dropped it and his phone across the studio.

"Of course." Claudia was sharp, and she understood his concern that Marinette still wasn't steady enough on her feet to be left alone.

Adrien pulled on his rain jacket as he crossed the studio to his bag and picked it up. He whispered a quick apology to Plagg when he spotted the tiny cat god's eyes glaring out at him from the gap left by the partially open zipper. He snagged his phone off the ground and quickly checked it over, relieved to find it hadn't cracked when he dropped it. There was a message from his waiting driver. He selected it on the lock screen then held his thumb against the home button to unlock the device.

 _I'm waiting outside, Adrien. Are you running late?_

Adrien thumbed out a quick response. _I'll be out in just a moment. Got held up helping my friend. We'll be giving her a ride home._ He sent that off and dropped his phone into the gym bag, zipping it closed so he didn't have to put up with Plagg's glaring at him. He might wind up regretting that later. Plagg didn't like being ignored: Adrien might find a hairball in his gym clothes for his trouble.

When he rejoined the girls, Madame Fortier was standing with them. "Will you be alright, Mademoiselle Dupain-Cheng?"

"Yes, Madame. Thank you for asking, and for the ice pack." Marinette assured her. "I probably shouldn't have pushed to come in today, but I really didn't want to miss class."

"Your health is more important, dear." The older woman said kindly. "Please rest up, and if you're not recovered on Monday, just send me an email. You can always make up the studio time later in the semester."

Marinette nodded. "Thank you, Madame." The instructor smiled again in parting and moved across the studio and into her office.

Claudia patted Marinette on the shoulder. "Feel better, Honey. Give me a call if you need anything this weekend."

"Thanks Claudia." Marinette smiled at her as Claudia hurried off.

"Well, c'mon." Adrien gestured Marinette to precede him out of the studio. They walked together down the hall to the stairs. "Let's get you home. I'll be giving you a ride so we don't have to walk in the rain."

"You really don't have to…" Marinette tried to dissuade him. Just has Adrien was about to respond, Marinette took her first step down the stairs to the first floor. He had been watching, so he was ready when her knee buckled and failed.

Reacting instantly, Adrien lurched forward and scooped her legs out from under her again. He was balanced with one foot two steps down and the other at the top of the stairs, Marinette clutched against his chest with her bottom resting against his outstretched thigh.

Marinette just dropped her face against his collar bone. "Oh my gawd, I promise I'm not this weak and uncoordinated." She whined, her voice tremulous with embarrassment.

Adrien chuckled. "Don't worry about it." He shifted her slightly, stepping forward so he could descend the rest of the stairs, and he felt the moment she finally gave in; her body relaxed and sank against him, and she put her arm up and around his neck to gain a more comfortable position. At the door to the street outside he knocked the handicapped button with his knee and passed through the automatic door, angling carefully so he didn't knock Marinette's feet against the frame. Marinette tugged the hood of her jacket over her head to ward off the cold rain, and also pulled Adrien's hood up for him.

Adrien jogged across the plaza to the curb where his town car was idling. The driver saw him approach and quick hopped out with a large umbrella to open the door for them. Adrien lowered Marinette's feet to the ground and gently held her elbow while she carefully scooted into the car. Adrien scooted in after her and the driver closed the door…

None of them saw the camera aimed at them out the window of a car idling around the corner.

.

-oOo-

.

Inside the town car, Marinette leaned back against the plush leather seat and closed her eyes. Her head had begun to throb uncomfortably and she couldn't tell if it was due to the fever or the swelling bump near her temple. She was aware that time was slipping away from her, and if she couldn't shoo Adrien away quickly enough, she would definitely be late to work again. If that happened her future in fashion would be as good as flushed down the toilet.

Beside her, she heard the rustle as Adrien whipped out his cell phone and the soft click as it unlocked, followed by the quiet buzzing of haptic feedback. In the insulated back seat of the town car, Marinette could hear the soft ringing through the phone's speaker. After just a few quiet rings, a woman's voice said, _"Good morning, Vogel Medical Clinic. How may I direct your call?"_

Adrien said, "Hello, this is Adrien Agreste. I need to speak with Doctor Vogel personally."

 _"Hello Monsieur Agreste, you have perfect timing. Doctor Vogel is on his morning coffee break. I'll put your call through to his office right away. Please hold."_

Marinette wanted to roll her eyes, but that would have required more effort than she was willing to put forth at this point in time. She sighed deeply and tugged her jacket around her more tightly, shivering. Adrien must have noticed; Marinette cracked an eye open when she felt his weight shift on the seat beside her, and watched as he leaned forward to turn up the heat on the dial in the passenger compartment. He cast a small, sunny smile at her that would have make her heart skip a beat under better circumstances: as it was, she tried to smile back, but it probably appeared more as a grimace when the car hit a bump in the road that lanced pain through her skull. She clenched her eyes shut again and tried not to shiver.

She heard a click through Adrien's phone, followed by a man's lightly accented voice saying, _"This is Doctor Johann Vogel."_

"Hello Doctor Vogel, this is Adrien Agreste." Marinette could hear the polite smile in his voice.

 _"Monsieur Agreste, good morning."_ He sounded surprised. _"I don't think you're scheduled to come in any time soon… What can I do for you this morning? Are you unwell?"_

"Oh, I'm fine… However, I'm hoping you can find time to see a friend of mine today." Adrien said.

Marinette fought off her drowsiness and her aching head to begin frantically gesturing at Adrien. "I don't need a doctor!" She whispered at him.

 _"Today, no. I'm afraid my schedule is quite full all of today."_ The doctor's voice drifted below Marinette's ability to hear when Adrien shushed her.

"You fainted and hit your head. You definitely need a doctor." He whispered back. Then at conversational volume into the phone, he said, "Hold on just a moment, please, Doctor. We're getting out of the car."

Marinette glanced out the window and indeed they were already pulled up at the curb outside her apartment building. Adrien's enormous driver was just reaching for the door with a huge umbrella already open and ready to shelter them. The driver opened the door and Adrien's warm hand cupped her elbow to gently assist her in getting out of the car: even with a throbbing head and feeling like garbage, the contact made her heart flutter a little bit. Adrien followed her out of the car and the three of them made a quick procession to the protective awning over her apartment building's entryway.

As Marinette was carefully pulling out her keys, (Tikki had them ready for her, bless her kind heart, and handed them to her with a worried look in her eyes), Adrien said to his driver. "Thank you for the ride, Gus. You can head back to the office. I'll call you if I need a ride later."

Marinette was struggling to fit the key into the lock with shaking fingers. As Gus stepped away to return to the town car, Adrien's warm hand closed over hers and withdrew the keys from her grasp. "This one?"

Marinette could only nod. Her jaw was clenched to keep her teeth from chattering. Adrien smoothly inserted the key and tugged the security door open, solicitously guiding her inside with a hand at the small of her back.

"Sorry about that, Doctor Vogel." Adrien shifted his gym bag and tucked his cell phone against his ear with his shoulder as they crossed the apartment lobby, jabbing the button for the sixth floor on the elevator panel.

Now that they were out of the confined quiet of the town car, Marinette could no longer hear the doctor's responses. The elevator dinged and the gate retracted. Adrien unzipped his jacket and guided her inside before turning to look at Marinette. "My friend came to class today with a high fever. She said she took some meds to bring her fever down in order to get through her day. What did you take for your fever?" he asked Marinette directly. She told him. "Acetaminophen… She fainted at the end of class and fell and hit her head on the ground… Twenty seconds or so? … No, she seems pretty lucid. Speech is clear."

Abruptly Adrien stepped a little closer to her. Surprised that he was invading her personal space, she tried to step back but hit the wall of the elevator. "Do you have any blurry vision?" He asked her, golden brows furrowed with concern. He lifted his hand with his index and middle fingers and his thumb extended. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three." Marinette managed to say through her chattering teeth.

"She's cold, shivering…" Adrien reported into the phone. "That's the fever? Okay."

Suddenly his hand was under her chin, gently tipping her head back so that he could look into her eyes. Marinette struggled valiantly against her squealing inner fifteen-year-old self to not react, but he was so close to her, his hand so warm, and eyes so so green… She couldn't help but blush. "Eyes are a bit dilated but not too much so, and they're not uneven. She's pretty flushed, though that's probably from the fever, too."

The elevator dinged their arrival at the sixth floor, and Adrien stepped back slightly, holding out an arm to ensure the door remained open while they exited and moved down the hall to her apartment.

"Her balance is good now, though she was a little wobbly before." Marinette tried to take her keys back, but Adrien stubbornly held on to them, asking her softly, "Which one?"

"Give them to me, I can open the door." She tried to snatch her keys from his hands with a quick grab, but he held them up and out of her reach.

He grinned at her with the most benign smile that both made her heart pound and drove up her blood pressure. He laughed, "No, no, no. I'll do it. Which one?"

Marinette huffed in exasperation. "I'm okay, really. You can go, now. I'm sure you have a bunch of things to do today. I will stay home and take it easy." She wouldn't: her fingers were crossed behind her back. She **had** to go to work, and she definitely **had** to be **on time**.

"No, I can't leave you! The doctor said that someone should stay with you…"

Marinette tried to say something more to get him to leave, but he interrupted her with, "Shush!"

She gasped. "Don't you shush me!"

Adrien eyed her candidly. "Yeah, she does seem a tad irritable." He said into the phone.

"I am not irritable." Marinette snapped.

He blinked at her with the barest amused curve of his lips. Marinette growled and tried her hardest not to pout, but felt like she failed. She finally got a grip on his jacket and tugged his arm down where she could reach the keys. She probably tugged him a little too hard, because he fell into her a bit and they both crashed into her door together.

"Ow! Geez, you're really strong…" He rubbed as his shoulder where he'd impacted the wood.

Marinette just tittered uselessly under her breath as she wrestled the keys from his grasp and found the right one to open her door. All the while she could hear the doctor's deep musical laughter through Adrien's phone.

Finally she got the key into the lock and twisted it to let them in. She threw the door open and stormed inside… or tried to. She didn't make it to the end of her hall before her legs quivered. She had to stagger sideways and catch herself against the console table in her entryway before she could tumble to the floor. _'Damn this fever! Damn it! I feel so weak, I can't stand this!'_ She felt the beginning sting of frustrated tears at the backs of her eyes.

Adrien quickly set his gym bag on the floor and came to her rescue. Again. He thumbed his phone over to speaker and guided her arm up and around his shoulders, holding her hand in place at the crook of his neck with the fingers that weren't clenching the phone. He wrapped his other arm around her back and carefully rested his hand in a gentlemanly neutral spot at her waist. "I'm sorry, Doctor Vogel. Could you repeat that? I missed the second half of what you said…"

 _"I said, your friend is probably going to be okay. From what you've told me, it sounds like she fainted before she hit her head, not because she hit her head. The blow to the head would be more concerning if she lost consciousness because of it, but you indicated that she came to quickly and was immediately lucid… Incidentally, when was the last time she ate?"_ He asked.

Marinette slid gratefully onto her couch before responding to Adrien's curious glance. "Uh… I suppose it was Wednesday evening. I had dinner with my parents."

Adrien's stare grew more horrified than Marinette truly felt was warranted. He relayed her response to the doctor, who hadn't heard her due to her speaking softly.

 _"Hmm… The lack of food might be a contributing factor, but it's not that unusual if you're sick to lose your appetite."_ Doctor Vogel offered. _"Adrien, I do think you should stay with your friend today. At least for the next twelve hours or so… Try to get some food into her if she can stomach it. Have her spend the day resting, napping if possible, but wake her every hour-and-a-half to two hours to be sure her symptoms aren't worsening. Ice the bump on her head each time she's awake for fifteen to twenty minutes. Let the fever run its course, unless it goes above forty degrees Celsius; then administer an appropriate dose of Tylenol or the like to bring it down a bit. If she's cold you can safely bundle her up in blankets. In fact it will help the fever burn out whatever she's fighting off. If symptoms worsen from the bump to her head, or her fever doesn't lapse within about two days, take her in to a doctor. Probably she's just fighting off an illness of some sort. I'm sure with rest and plenty of fluids, she'll recover soon. If symptoms from the blow to the head worsen, you can call me back. I'll send you an email with a full set of instructions."_

Adrien nodded through the doctor's whole monologue of instructions, and Marinette's hopes of making it to work today sank to the floor and ran down the figurative drain. She could see the determined set of his jaw. There was no way he would let her step foot out her door now…

"Understood, Doctor Vogel." Adrien turned the phone back over to private and made a few more noises of acknowledgement before thanking the doctor and ending the call.

Miserably, Marinette slumped sideways on her couch and sighed into a throw pillow. "But I need to go to work…" She refused to admit to herself how whiney that sounded.

She turned her head when she felt the sofa shift and found Adrien sitting on the arm of the couch frowning down at her in concern. "Why is it so important that you go to work today?" He asked. "Why can't you take today off so you can recover?"

Marinette shifted on the couch to buy herself time to think. _'I can't tell him I'm on a final warning at work because I'm late and disappear all the time! He'll think I'm irresponsible!'_ "Fashion Week is coming up in like two weeks. I have tons of work that needs to be done; things I am responsible for." It wasn't the truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie either.

Adrien seemed to accept her reason though. "I understand. I have a ton of work to get done in the next two weeks as well. But if you don't feel well, you're not going to be productive anyway. You'd just sit at your desk like a zombie all day."

"I don't want to get in trouble for not showing up to work this close to Fashion Week," Marinette confessed. "My boss has been really stressed and high strung. I might get in trouble."

"I can take care of that." Adrien assured her. "I need to call in and inform my secretary that I'll be out of the office today. I'll have her inform your boss that you're out for a medical emergency today as well."

Marinette didn't have a response. She just pouted at a loose string on the sleeve of her sweatshirt.

"The doctor agreed that you need to stay in and rest today. I will be happy to stay here and take care of you, since you live alone."

She launched upright on the couch and objected. "Adrien, you don't have to do that! I'm sure you are really busy, you can't stay here and take care of me!"

He tipped his head to one side and cocked an eyebrow in amusement. "Why not?" The smile slipped off his face slowly. "Unless you're not comfortable with me being here: I can understand a strange man in your apartment making you uncomfortable…"

"Oh my god, you're not a 'strange man', Adrien; you're my friend," She rushed to reassure him. She hated seeing the friendly, faintly teasing light in his eyes dim with doubt. "Of course you don't make me uncomfortable."

"Then let me **be** a friend, and take care of you today." His smile was so gentle and so warm that Marinette knew she had lost the argument.

She sighed in defeat. "Okay."

"Excellent!" Adrien clapped his hands together once and rose off the arm of the couch, "Let's get you some food. Doctor Vogel said you should eat something."

He took three strides and was standing before her pantry, both doors open. Marinette was imagining the tumble weed rolling across the desert in one of those old American cartoons from her dad's childhood.

"Do you have more food storage than just this pantry?" Adrien asked. His face looked a little pale as he looked at her over his arm.

"Just the fridge: it's over under the counter." She gestured to the far end of her tiny kitchen. Adrien left her empty pantry open and moved around the island, then disappeared as he squatted and tugged open both sides of the under the counter refrigerator. "I got paid today: I was going to go shopping after work to get some things…" She squirmed uncomfortably, embarrassed at her pathetically scanty food stores. _'I **am** a superhero, not that I can explain that to him. It takes a lot of calories to fuel my magic and keep me going! I just… can't afford to eat enough, let alone keep a bunch of food around all the time! I don't make enough money.'_

Adrien popped up above the counter and turned to look at her again. She heard the fridge doors close as he put a smile on his face that seemed slightly forced. "Don't worry about it. I'll just order some lunch to be delivered for us. Soup sound good?"

Marinette nodded self-consciously. "I like soup."

"Okay, soup it is." His smile became more natural. "Meanwhile, why don't you head upstairs and get some rest?"

She nodded and winced when her head twinged again from the bump. "I really do wish you would just let me go to work." She grumbled under her breath.

"Not a chance! The only place you're going is to sleep." He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at her in mock seriousness. "Now, will you walk up those stairs under your own power, or am I going to have to carry you up to bed?"

 _'That's not the way I ever imagined Adrien Agreste trying to talk me into bed.'_ Marinette pouted, but she carefully rose off the couch and made her way to her stairs.

"Do you need my help on the stairs?" Adrien asked. She **did not** squeal internally at the note of genuine concern in his voice.

"No, I'll be fine." She assured him, not turning around so he couldn't see how red her face was or the starry sparkle she was sure was in her eyes. "I'm not a complete invalid."

He chuckled, the sound low and warm. "I know that. I'm just worried because of how unsteady you were earlier." The worn floorboards creaked as he passed between the kitchen island and her freestanding worktable. "I'll order up that lunch and I'll come wake you when the food arrives."

She did finally turn around on her landing and offered him a grateful smile. "Thanks, Adrien." He was standing at the foot of her stairs with the diffuse light from the rainy sky outside illuminating him on one side. He looked like he was perfectly posed for a photo shoot, smiling gently up at her. She tugged the hood of her sweatshirt tight around the back of her neck for warmth, and for something to do with her hands. "I know I'm not being an easy patient, but I appreciate your help. I'm sorry to take you away from work."

He shook his head, smiling. "Don't even worry about that. It's not a big deal. I'm glad I can be here to help a friend. Get some rest."

She gave him one more small smile and carefully hauled herself up the stairs. She did have to lean rather heavily on the railing.

In her lofted bedroom she glanced around quickly to make sure there was nothing embarrassing out of place for Adrien to see when he would come up later to fetch her for lunch. Aside from a pair of pants that she kicked under the dust ruffle of her bed, there was nothing lying out to alarm anyone. A shiver racked her body, so she flung back the heavy comforter on her bed and crawled in. She rooted around into the blankets and pillows, drawing the covers in close around her head to hold in the warmth.

As the blankets warmed and her body relaxed, Marinette's eyes slid closed. She listened for the quiet sounds of Adrien moving downstairs and couldn't pull together the energy to freak out about the fact that **Adrien** was playing the part of her nurse for the day. Before she could dwell on that thought too long, exhaustion fell on her like a heavy dense cloud, and she sank into dreamless sleep.

.

-oOo-

.

Tikki couldn't do anything but shake her head as she gazed down upon her unconscious charge with amused consternation. "Stubborn girl," she whispered, fondly brushing dark, tangled bangs away from Marinette's pale face. "You should have listened to me and stayed home this morning to rest."

"But then Adrien wouldn't be downstairs freaking out about Marinette's perceived eating disorder and slash or state of alarming poverty."

Tikki glanced over her shoulder at Plagg, seeing he had happily made himself at home in a pile of Marinette's yarn for her crocheting projects. The ridiculous cat even had a bright green thread of yarn draped over his belly because he was lying on his back atop the skein.

"Hello Trouble." She smiled and gave him a slow blink.

He slow blinked back at her with a saucy grin. "Hi Sugar."

Tikki turned back to Marinette and tugged a plush throw blanket higher up the girl's tightly curled body before drifting over to her fellow god. Plagg sat up atop the bright green yarn and reached his hands out to her. She took them and they both closed their eyes as they leaned their foreheads together to commune silently for a few moments.

Plagg sighed deeply and slid his head down to Tikki's shoulder where he nuzzled against her. "I've missed you," he confessed.

Tikki lightly scratched behind his ear. "I've missed you, too."

"These two are killing me."

She laughed. "You're immortal."

"No, I'm pretty sure they're actually killing me." He growled softly as she continued to giggle. "I don't think we've ever had such oblivious kittens."

"They've had it rough. They're coming together again, now." She offered. "Finally."

His nose scrunched in irritation. "Would you believe Chloe almost had him convinced that he couldn't be friends with Marinette because it'll ruin her career?"

Tikki gaped at him. "What?! How could he even… What kind of hare brained, crack pate—"

"Don't worry," he chuckled. "I'm pretty sure when he saw Marinette on the ground he forgot all about Chloe; that stupid, manipulative, back-stabbing, selfish bitch."

Tikki couldn't even object to his choice of language. It was an apt description. "Well, they're reacquainted now, and I'm sure they'll draw closer together in the future. He wouldn't offer to take care of her like this if he didn't feel **something** for her strongly."

Plagg cackled and rolled off the ball of yarn to float up to the railing where he could spy on Adrien. The blonde was scrubbing his hands through his hair in distress over Marinette's very empty cupboards. "Oh his feelings are plenty strong. He was beating himself up about it for **hours** this morning, debating his desire for friendship against the threat to Marinette's career, **and** against his desire to not piss Chloe off."

Tikki landed beside him and smiled down at Plagg's charge. "He's an incredibly pure soul. You really picked a great one this time."

"Oh! Well…" Plagg preened, "He's alright. Little dense, though."

Tikki giggled. "He'll come around, I'm sure. Go calm him down. Marinette doesn't have an eating disorder; she just doesn't have quite enough income to cover her calorie needs. And she's been stressed out at work because her boss is out for her blood. Running around in the rain this morning was just the straw on the camel's back."

"Alrighty. You coming down?" He flicked his tail.

Tikki shook her head. "I'll watch from the plants." She waved her arm at the wall of greenery. "But first I'm going to tidy things up up here so she's not embarrassed when Adrien wakes her up for lunch."

"See you later, Sugar." He head-butted her chest affectionately one more time before zooming down to Adrien.

Tikki giggled softly when she heard Adrien's undignified squawk of alarm. "Plagg, hide! What if she sees you?"

"I checked: she's already dead to the world." He'd put on the annoying wheedle he liked to use when he wanted to get his way. Tikki listened as she worked quickly at picking up Marinette's loft. "Pretty sure a bomb could go off on top of her and she wouldn't notice. Hey! Are you ordering groceries?"

"Yes…"

"Oh that will never do; you should get at least three wheels of brie."

Adrien's sigh was painfully harried. "We're ordering groceries for Marinette, not for us."

"I know that!" Plagg's response was the perfect balance of defensive and indignant. "Cheese is high in calories and healthy saturated fats. Marinette is too skinny; she should eat more cheese. In fact, make it four wheels."

Tikki stashed the last pair of dirty socks in Marinette's hamper and skirted along the half wall to the enormous growth of plants that she and Marinette tended. She selected a nice hiding spot amongst the blossoms of a red Anthurium and settled in to watch over her cat and his boy.

.

-oOo-

.

 ** _Author's Note:_** _Happy Holidays to all my readers! It's a little bit late, bit here is Chapter Twelve of Drawn Together. Adrien is surprisingly stubborn now that he's made up his mind (I wasn't going to make him suffer his agonizing indecision for TOO long) and his persistence is already driving Marinette up the wall. But he got his way and she's not going in to work, so she'll have the day to rest._

 _Next time: Nurse Adrien inflicts his gentle care upon Marinette and gets a nose full of what Marinette was up to late Wednesday evening for his trouble. Awkward...! Taco Night never happens, but no one told Alya and Nino that. And Chloe is 'disappointed' when Adrien doesn't show up for the movie he technically never agreed to go to in the first place._

 _As always, all the appreciation in the world goes to **Katie H** and **ArtemisWinter** for their invaluable assistance as sounding board and beta-reader, respectively. Also, deepest thanks to everyone who left a review with some thoughtful words. I read ALL my reviews and I try to respond to them individually as much as possible, so let me know what you thought, or if you want to speculate I am happy to hear your ideas. _

_Until next time!_

 _Love-love, BIG love..._

 _~Malkharah_


	13. The Surprise One-Two Combo

**Chapter 13: The Surprise One-Two Combo**

.

-oOo-

.

"Thanks for bringing these so quickly," Adrien smiled at the delivery guy. He passed back the receipt he had signed, and accepted the heavy paper sack full of tasty smelling food.

The man returned a friendly smile and nodded. "Thank you, and have a great day!"

"Stay dry out there." Adrien added in parting as he closed the door and twisted the knob for the deadbolt. He moved to the counter in Marinette's kitchen and deposited the bag there to investigate the contents. Tugging the paper free of several staples he inhaled the fragrant air that escaped as he reached his hand inside. Pho, in both beef and chicken options and with all the trimmings, fried shrimp spring rolls, and a double order of crispy pork belly with house-made sweet chili sauce… _'Looks like everything's here!'_

"That smells pretty good!" Plagg's smile was wide enough to show off the tips of his tiny fangs. He was lolling on the counter on top of a bright purple quilted pot holder Adrien had found for him in one of Marinette's drawers after he complained that the counter top was cold. "Can I have a piece of the pork belly?"

"Of course, buddy." Adrien popped one container open and fished out the hot savory morsel to pass to the little black kwami, before sealing the lid closed and popping it back in the bag to stay warm. "I'm going to go wake Marinette up for lunch. Find somewhere out of sight until she's eaten something and gone back up to nap again, okay?"

"Aye-aye, _mon capitaine_!" Plagg wedged the chunk of pork belly into his mouth and saluted smartly before zipping off into the wall of plants, up near the ceiling and Marinette's loft.

Adrien watched him go with a surprised grin. _'He seems to be in an unusually good mood. I wonder what's got him so cheerful…'_ Adrien shook his head and crossed the creaking wood floor of Marinette's apartment to the steps ascending to the lofted bedroom. He paused on the landing next to the twenty foot high wall of windows that let out onto her balcony. It had been raining gradually harder all week, but the dreary weather didn't stop him from admiring the potted plants and the charming little iron table and chairs set up out there for nicer days. Today though rain was tapping insistently against the glass and he even picked up a distant rumble of thunder.

He made sure he wasn't too quiet as he climbed the rest of the stairs, trying to give his friend a little bit of warning that he was on his way. At the top of the steps, though, he stopped and gazed round for a moment to get his bearings: the overall effect of the space made him feel like a commoner creeping into a fairy queen's bower.

In the open loft her bed took center stage. There was a canopy of diaphanous lengths of fabric in shades of pink, blue, and orange, suspended from curtain rods anchored in the ceiling. Also anchored in the wood beams were more plants, spilling vines, leaves, and flowers in a lively explosion of colors and textures. In one corner stood a tall stand lamp with several arms and in another a robust looking palm tree of some sort.

The loft was so warm and comfortable and alive he wished he could take a nap here too.

 _'My god, Marinette must have just the most ridiculous green thumb I've ever imagined.'_ He couldn't help but be impressed as he admired the healthy looking plants: he'd tried several times but he couldn't even keep a cactus alive for very long.

A sigh escaped the bed and Adrien realized he'd been gawking for too long: their food would get cold.

"Marinette," he called in a low voice. There was no response. Adrien crossed the floor on silent feet. He set one hand on the corner of her bedside table and leaned over the mountain of blankets and pillows searching for his friend. Spotting a tuft of midnight hair, he carefully peeled back the blanket just slightly, hoping it wouldn't startle her.

Marinette was dead to the world: her breaths were slow and even, dark lashes fanning against her flushed cheeks. She looked so exhausted, he hated to wake her, but she had been asleep for an hour and she really did need to eat something…

Adrien rested a careful hand against her shoulder. "Marinette, lunch is here. It's time to wake up."

She sighed and tugged the blanket back over her head.

Adrien huffed a laugh. "C'mon, Marinette, you really need to eat something. Wake up. I got pho for us."

"Mmmmmmmm, pho." Finally, a response!

"You can pick from beef or chicken." He coaxed. He shook her shoulder gently and she finally cracked her eyes open and rolled onto her back to regard him. She must have been half asleep still, or in a feverish daze because she didn't seem to really register his words; she just blinked at him lazily. The slow blinks made his ears burn for some reason. "I got spring rolls and crispy pork belly, too."

"That sounds really good." Her voice was low and lazy, and the burning in his ears spread to his neck. There was a subtly sweet and heady aroma about her bed… Adrien couldn't quite place it. He cleared his throat, suddenly aware that he was leaning over her and was perhaps a little too close.

She blinked and suddenly seemed to finally see him. "Oh. Oh! Adrien!" She scooted backward a little so she was partially propped up against a few pillows. "Lunch. Yeah, o- okay." She scrubbed her face with her hands and tried to comb through her hair with her fingers before realizing it was still in the low ponytail she had hastily pulled it into for class that morning, now made messy and tangled from sleep. "Alright."

Marinette flipped her many layers of blankets and sheets off her legs.

Adrien, who was still standing immediately at her bedside, got a lungful of the breathtakingly potent aroma that suddenly wafted off her bed and stumbled backward a pace in alarm. A lance of warmth seemed to have speared him low in the abdomen, tightening muscles there and making his entire body flush with sudden arousal.

Awkwardly, so very awkwardly, Adrien stepped away rapidly several more times until he was standing at the top of her stairs and facing away from her. He had to clear his throat twice before he could strangle out over his shoulder, "Alright, well, now that you're wake I'll let you pull yourself together and come down. I'll pour us some water for with lunch. Okay? See you in a sec!"

Shamefully, he fled down the stairs.

.

.

Marinette was left sitting on her bed with one foot halfway in her first slipper and her other foot still on the bed, mouth open in surprise and blinking bewilderedly.

"What was that about?" she whispered to herself.

.

.

Hidden in the wall of plants, Plagg was laughing so hard he wasn't making any true sound, just a sort of helpless clicking in the back of his throat. Tikki wasn't far from the same state, face burning in vicarious embarrassment for the poor boy who got caught utterly by surprise, but still laughing at the whole situation.

It had been difficult for both kwami, being patient until this point, but now that their Chosen were reacquainted as civilians, finally things were bound to get really interesting again!

.

.

Down in the kitchen, Adrien was pressing his fists into his diaphragm as if he might reach inside himself and forcefully crush the ridiculous fluttery feeling there that seemed to be fueling his dizzyingly sudden and horrifyingly inconvenient boner. _'What the hell even just happened to me?!'_ Never, **never** , had he **ever** been aroused so suddenly and dear god, that smell! _'Her scent… Oh holy shit, that is the sexiest thing I have ever smelled in my entire life!'_

Recently, probably within about the last two or three days, Marinette had… been intimate.

He could tell it had been a solo activity; no other person's scent had been mixed with the pure potency of her satisfaction. Undiluted by anything but a bit of time, it had punched him straight in the guts like a school yard bully out for his lunch money. It caught him totally by surprise. _'Delicate-looking, sweet, innocent-seeming Marinette…'_ His thoughts trailed to static as he caught himself staring vacantly at the ceiling, directly in the direction of Marinette's bed.

Frustrated, Adrien scrubbed his hands through his hair and grasped his willpower firmly, forcing himself to turn and gaze out the rain speckled windows across the living room. _'Stop thinking about it. Stop it. Don't go down that path, Adrien: it's forbidden to you. That way lie monsters. It's none of your business. She's a healthy, normal young woman and she is your completely platonic friend that you are just becoming reacquainted with after not having spoken for years. She is sick, and you are here to take care of her. A normal person wouldn't have any idea that she…'_ His brain trailed off into hazy static for a moment. _'Stop it! It's none of your business! It didn't happen. Don't make it weird.'_

He breathed slowly and deeply, chanting this weird, disjointed mantra and holding firmly images of glaciers and distant mountain peaks and still ponds in his mind until the raging sea of his hormones finally ebbed back to its standard tranquility.

He was filling two cups with water from her filter pitcher when he heard the squeak of steps descending from the loft. _'It's not your business. She couldn't possibly know what you picked up on, she has no idea you have magically enhanced senses.'_ He reminded himself as he refilled the pitcher from her kitchen faucet. _'Don't make it weird. It didn't happen. Don't make it weird.'_

When she hopped up on a stool at the counter across from him and he finally turned around, he was able to smile at her normally, though she eyed him carefully for a moment. She must have picked up on a little of his discomfort upstairs after all. She had braided her hair into two glossy braids, one hanging down behind either ear, and pulled a heavy dark green beanie down low over her ears and forehead. She was swathed in a thick fleece blanket and her face was still very flushed with fever.

He set the whole incident aside as a freak accident: really, it was inappropriate. He was supposed to be here to help her. "Are you feeling any better?" he asked. His tone of voice was carefully even, and Marinette appeared to let go of whatever she was looking for in his face. _'Thank goodness… I don't even know what caused all that; what could I possibly say to explain…?'_

Her brows twitched with a slight frown. "M-my head still hurts, and I'm still just f- freezing, but I feel a little more alert, maybe." Her voice was soft and strained, and she nibbled on her lower lip as she hugged herself under her blanket.

"Do you have a thermometer?" he asked gently.

She shifted and produced a small digital thermometer from the top of her enshrouding blanket without creating a gap for any air to get in. Adrien accepted the thermometer, turned it on to a blank reading, and asked her to open up for him. He carefully set the thermometer tip under her tongue before fishing his phone out of his pocket to double check the email he'd received from Doctor Vogel. He ran down the list of symptoms to check for and crossed them all off as he checked her over: her eyes weren't unusually dilated, her balance was alright, no excessive dizziness, no ringing in the ears.

When the thermometer beeped, he lifted it carefully from her mouth and checked the display: 39.0 degrees. "You're still running a decent fever, but it's not dangerous. Let's get you some soup and then you can head back to bed for a couple hours. Do you want beef or chicken?"

She nodded and tugged her blanket closer around her shoulders, cheeks very rosy. "Beef please, Nurse Adrien." She essayed a hint of humor.

Adrien smiled as he carefully portioned out noodles into a bowl and decorated it with a generous amount of thinly sliced raw beef from the delivery containers, followed by the nearly boiling hot broth to cover. Adrien passed a set of disposable chopsticks to Marinette and slid an open take out box with a selection of herbs, vegetables and traditional condiments her way. "Beef pho for the good patient. Nurse's advice: make it as spicy as you can stand it. It will help burn out whatever sickness you have."

"My mom has always said the same thing." Marinette used her chopsticks to carefully move some basil leaves and bean sprouts into her bowl. Her voice was still quiet and he could tell she was still exhausted and hadn't really been ready to wake up.

He tore the corner off a packet of Sriracha and handed it to her. Dutifully she squeezed the hot chili sauce into her soup, following it with a hearty squeeze of hoisin. "Can I squeeze some lime in for you?"

"Please…" Marinette pushed her bowl towards him and he crushed the life out of a lime quarter for her. "Thanks."

"My pleasure." He pulled a spoon from one of her drawers and rested it in her bowl before pushing it back to her. He then prepared a bowl of the chicken pho for himself and cracked the lids on the other two dishes.

They ate in companionable quiet, exchanging few words. Adrien didn't know quite what to say to engage in conversation with her and Marinette was sick and tired and didn't have anything brilliant to discuss. Between them they polished off the pho and spring rolls and made a good run at the crispy pork belly, which sadly wasn't very crispy by the time they got to it, though still very tasty.

Once through with the meal, Marinette excused herself back up to her bed. Adrien made her take an ice pack that he found in her tiny freezer to apply to the knot on her head, though she shuddered with distaste at having to touch the freezing thing. He wrapped it carefully in a kitchen towel for her and she finally accepted it before crossing to the steps to the loft, blanket swishing against the hardwood floor.

He listened carefully as she settled herself in bed to see if she would need anything more from him at this time, but crossed his fingers that he wouldn't be needed. He wasn't sure he would ever be able to set foot in her loft again without the tantalizing aroma of her satisfaction leaping to the forefront of his mind. Catching himself, he carefully **did not** think about that. He **would** not think about it ever again, if he could manage it. _'It didn't happen. Don't think about it, it's not your business. It's not appropriate.'_ He very deliberately seized the memory with both hands and shoved it into a box that he crammed into a deep, dark corner of his consciousness, blocking the entire "loft incident" from his mind…

As Marinette settled in to nap for a couple hours, Adrien cleaned up after their lunch. Once their few dishes were done he dried his hands on a kitchen towel and placed a quick call to Marie to let her know he wouldn't be in to the office today.

"I am helping a friend with a medical emergency." He explained to her. "Also, please inform Guy Bredeauteau in the Teen Fashions division that Marinette Dupain-Cheng will be out sick today."

 _"Your friend?"_ Marie querried.

"Yes, we went to school together." Adrien confirmed. "The doctor said she needs to rest for the day and shouldn't be left alone, so I'm staying here to take care of her. I'll be in tomorrow to catch up, so if anything needs my attention just set it on my desk and email me about it. I'm available by phone, too."

 _"Don't worry, Adrien. We can survive without you for a day."_ Marie teased gently. _"I'll give you a call if anything comes up, but you just focus on helping your friend feel better."_

"Thanks for everything you do for me, Marie. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you on Monday." Adrien smiled at the tiny thumbnail of his secretary after he ended the call. _'She is such a nice lady.'_

For the rest of the afternoon he decided to try catch up on his pending assignments for his online courses. He woke Marinette twice more during the day by calling her name from the top of the steps. She seemed to wake more easily each time, and he was glad he didn't have to approach her bed again. Each time she seemed a little more alert, a little less flushed. The third time he woke her she actually had the energy to throw a balled up sock at him from the confines of her bed in protest. He laughed as it bounced off his arm and insisted that she get up and let him check her symptoms. Her fever persisted, though, and that worried him.

.

-oOo-

.

Guy Bredeauteau was just putting his final touches on a budget forecast for his department when Abigail Foust knocked on his door. "Excuse the interruption, Monsieur Bredeauteau." He waved her into the office absently, saving and closing the spreadsheet.

Disinterestedly he pulled off his glasses and polished them with a lint-free cloth. "What can I help you with, Madame Foust?

Abigail frowned slightly, obviously reluctant. "I just got a call informing that Marinette Dupain-Cheng won't be in today. She's had some sort of medical emergency."

Smiling slightly, Guy Bredeauteau slid his glasses back into place and opened a file he had prepared on his computer. "Very good, Madame Foust. Thank you for informing me."

"I'm sure she must be very sick, for her to miss work today." Abigail offered. "The call came from—"

"That will be all, Madame." He cut her off, not interested to hear her plea for the half Chinese woman's continued employment. He began typing in the Human Resources form he had pulled up, a cold little smile on his face. "Please close the door behind you."

"Yes sir." She said, softly. She sighed unhappily, but pulled the door shut behind her.

.

-oOo-

.

Marinette woke under her own power. The light in her loft was odd, and it took her a moment to realize that it must be the late afternoon. She rolled over carefully, grimacing at the disgusting feeling of her clothes sticking to her, made clingy by sweat, and grabbed her phone from where it was charging.

It was 5:33pm, and she had fourteen pending messages on the secure messaging app she and Chat Noir used _._ Worried there had been an akuma attack, she unlocked her phone and sat up, clicking on the EncryptID icon and scrolling through the notifications. They were all songs, memes, and silly videos from _TheOnlyCHATWhoKnowsWhereItsAt_. She sighed in relief. ' _Of course; If there had been an attack, Tikki would have woken me. That ridiculous goofy cat…'_

She pulled her skewed hat from her head and scratched her itchy scalp. She hated wearing a hat to sleep in, but she had been so **cold** …

Marinette realized that she didn't feel nearly so bone-crackingly chilled any more. She shivered slightly, but it was just the normal coolness of waking up and pushing away the covers. What's more, her clothes and sheets were damp with sweat.

"My fever must have broken," she whispered to herself. She pulled her hat back down around her ears and pushed the suddenly too stifling blankets off her legs, then fixed her socks and slid her feet into her slippers.

"How are you feeling?" whispered a tiny, sweet voice.

Marinette smiled at Tikki. The scarlet kwami had drifted over the half wall and wove through the hanging plants to come check on her. "Better, finally, I think." She tugged an oversized sweater around her and stood up, moving to check her reflection in the mirror on the back of her dresser. She still had dark circles under her eyes, but her skin wasn't so flushed anymore and her mind felt sharper. "I think my fever broke. I'm all sweaty…"

"That's a relief! I was really worried about you." Tikki put a tiny hand over her heart. "You've had a very rough few days."

Marinette pulled the ties from the ends of her sleep-mussed braids and unraveled them with her fingers. "I'm tough, I'll be fine… Now that I've had a chance to eat something and rest." She wrinkled her nose at pulling her fingers through tangled, sweat dampened hair. "What's Adrien been up to?" She'd lost a bit more of her shyness with him today: it was hard to stay so nervous when he was being such a pest about checking her over for the concussion protocols. She'd never known before that he could be so stubborn.

Tikki smiled, whispering, "He's been working on homework most of the day, when he wasn't nursing you."

Marinette felt her cheeks burn lightly. "Oh my gosh, I have been such a mess today. What must he think?"

The miniature goddess rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he thinks you were sick and needed a friend's help. Don't be so worried."

Marinette sighed. Her hair was as good as it was going to get right now, but the rest of her was a little ripe. "Well, I guess I'll go face the music."

"You probably have time to get in a shower before Alya and Nino are due to show up at six." Tikki offered softly.

Marinette froze, eyes going wide. "Oh no, I forgot they were coming over tonight! I haven't prepared anything, haven't gone shopping!"

"Don't worry, you can just order take out." Tikki whispered reassuringly. "No one will hold it against you."

Nodding, Marinette buttoned her chunky sweater and started down the steps. She glanced over the wall to the living space below and spotted Adrien sprawled across her couch, sock-clad feet jutting over one arm and his golden head propped up by the other, laptop resting on his belly.

When he noticed her, he tugged out a wireless earbud and sat up, closing the laptop. "Hey, sleepy-head, how are you feeling?" he asked with a charming grin.

"Better than before," Marinette said. She moved carefully down the rest of the stairs. "A little weak still, maybe, but I think my fever finally broke."

"You've got good timing. Nino and Alya are due to show up in about twenty minutes, or so." He set his laptop on the coffee table and stood up. Marinette averted her eyes from the sliver of six-pack that peeked at her when he stretched his arms over his head. "What do you want to do? I could call them and let them know if you're not feeling up to having guests."

She waved a hand at him. "No, no, no, I really am feeling much better… And they've been in America for the past year. I've missed them; I don't really want to cancel." She scratched the back of her neck where her sweaty hair was sticking to her. "But then, I could get them sick…"

"Don't worry about that." He told her. "Just don't share any food with anyone and they'll be fine, I'm sure."

"You've spent all day with me;" Marinette eyed him. "I could get you sick."

Adrien laughed lightly. "Oh, don't worry about me. I'm ridiculously healthy, I never get sick." He grinned at her as he moved around the end of the couch toward where she stopped at the base of the stairs. "Let's check your symptoms one more time."

She stepped backwards away from him. "Ah, stop!"

A frown crinkled his forehead. "What's wrong?"

Marinette blushed, toeing the floor with the tip of her leather slipper. "Um, uh… well, n- nothing…" She mumbled self-consciously. _'I stink, don't come any closer! Yeah, right.'_ In an attempt at diversion, she said, "What should we do about dinner?"

"Well…" His frown lessened, but he eyed her as he leaned against the end of the kitchen island. "Your original plan was tacos, right?"

She sighed in relief when he didn't walk any closer to her. "Yes."

Adrien's cheek dimpled slightly in a half smile. "I've never tried to make tacos, but if you'll talk me through it I probably won't burn down your kitchen."

Marinette laughed and shook her head. "No, I never got the chance to buy any ingredients. We'll just order out. We can see what everyone wants when they get here." She fidgeted for a moment, tugging on the cuff of her sweater. "Would you mind if I just hop through the shower real quick? I've been sick all day, and I feel kinda gross…"

Adrien shook his head with a smile. "Of course I don't mind. Go ahead and do what you need to do, don't worry about me."

"Okay, thanks." She scurried around her work table and made her way toward the bathroom. "I'll try to be quick."

He huffed a laugh. "Take all the time you need. There's no rush."

Marinette leaned her forehead against the bathroom door after she closed it and turned the lock. ' _UUUUuuuggghhhhh, why am I still so awkward with him?'_ She decided that it was just because she'd been drawing him naked all week, and it was **definitely not** because she was still harboring that ridiculous crush on him.

She pushed off the door and flipped the switch for the fan before stepping over to turn the water on for her shower. Steam billowed into the air and she started peeling off sweaty clothes.

.

-oOo-

.

Adrien's keen ears picked up the sound of two people coming down the hall toward Marinette's door over the sound of the shower running. She had been in there for about fifteen minutes now, so she must have taken him at his word not to rush. He was glad she decided to take her time; a hot shower always helped him feel better when he was under the weather in any way: a hot shower or a massage.

He grinned when he heard Nino's laugh in the hall. Adrien moved past the bathroom door, nose twitching at the subtly sweet smell of Marinette's soap, clover and honey, and opened the apartment door just as Alya began to knock.

Alya froze in surprise as the door opened after one rap of her knuckles. She stared at him for a second in shock before her face split in an enormous grin. "OH MY GOD, ADRIEN, YOU'RE HERE!" She launched herself at him and they both laughed as he caught her in a big hug. She kept laughing as she squeezed him as hard as she could. "What are you doing here? I knew Mari invited you, but I didn't know you had accepted. Oh my god, let me look at you!"

She seized his face with both hands and held him still while she grinned up at him. "Hi Alya, it's good to see you too." He smiled at her.

Her hazel eyes sparkled at him behind her glasses. "You look good, Adrien."

"You do, too! Your hair is short." He eyed her ombre tresses where they curled above her shoulders.

"Yeah, it's easier to travel with." She smiled, patting her hair with one hand.

"Out of the way, woman!" Nino bumped her with his shoulder so he could get at Adrien too, sliding a case of beer onto the table. "Let a brotha past to get a hug from his best dude."

Adrien laughed and eagerly accepted a hug from Nino, of equal amplitude to the one he'd gotten from Alya, with some manly back patting. "Hey, man, it's great to see you again!"

"You too, Adrien! You too." Nino pulled back and grinned at him. They were about the same height again, he realized: he'd been slightly shorter than Nino last time they stood side by side, though Nino was still really lean. Nino punched him lightly in the arm. "Look at you, dude. Been working out?"

"Yeah, I hit the gym pretty often." Adrien flexed jokingly. "Some weights, lots of parkour."

"Awesome, that parkour stuff looks rad."

Alya shut the door to the apartment hallway and moved into the kitchen to set her purse down on the island, glancing around. "Hey, where's Mari?"

"Oh, she just wanted to get a shower quick before you guys arrived." Adrien told her.

At that moment, the bathroom door unlatched and Marinette stepped out in her fluffy pink bathrobe and a cloud of fragrant steam. "Ohhh, I feel almost human again!" She announced. She was still blotting water out of her hair with the towel around her neck when she spotted Alya and Nino standing in her kitchen, both staring at her with disbelieving expressions and grins threatening to overwhelm their faces. "Oh! Um, wow… You guys are early."

"You haven't seen us in over a year, and that's your opening line?" Nino asked teasingly.

Marinette laughed and dropped the towel around her shoulders. "I mean, HI!" She came forward and gave Nino a big hug, then Alya. "I've missed you guys. Sorry I'm so out of it: I've been sick all day." She pulled back from Alya and checked to make sure her bathrobe was still well tucked and concealing everything. "My fever finally broke, I think, so I'm probably not contagious anymore."

"Speaking of which," Adrien stepped closer and gestured at her with the thermometer, "I still need to check your symptoms one more time."

Marinette flushed bright pink and glanced down at her bathrobe, then back up at Adrien's helpful little smile and the teasing light that had come on in both Alya and Nino's eyes. She danced away awkwardly when Adrien stepped toward her, fleeing toward the steps up to her loft. "No! Wait, let me go get dressed first! Stay here, I'll be right back down." She scurried lightly up the steps to find clean clothes, disbelieving that she'd been so scatterbrained as to not bring fresh clothes with her down to her bathroom.

Below, Alya and Nino exchanged significant glances before Alya turned on Adrien. "So you've been here all day taking care of her?"

Adrien nodded agreeably. "She collapsed today at class and I was there, so I brought her home. She fainted from her fever and hit her head, but I knew she lives alone so I offered to stay here and take care of her: she had to be woken up periodically to make sure she didn't have a concussion."

Alya's brow crinkled in a worried frown. "Oh shit. Is she okay?"

Adrien smiled slightly and made a soothing gesture, still waving the thermometer. "She's fine. She doesn't appear to have any concussion symptoms; it was just the fever now that I was worried about but she says she thinks the fever broke. She said she woke up sweaty, so she wanted to get a shower before you guys got here."

"Here's that ice pack." Marinette came back down the stairs, swathed in a pair of grey leggings and a heavy dark blue sweater, pink leather slippers on her feet. She passed the warm ice pack to Adrien, who passed it to Nino.

"Throw that in the freezer, will you?" He pressed Marinette onto one of her kitchen stools with two hands that swallowed her slender shoulders and said, "Let's get this out of the way: open up."

Marinette turned pink again at his proximity, but she rolled her eyes and opened her mouth so Adrien could set the tip of the thermometer under her tongue.

Alya watched in amazement as Adrien pushed Marinette's hair back from her forehead and examined the bruising there, before gently seizing her face and tilting her head back so he could gaze into her eyes. She didn't miss how Marinette turned pinker under Adrien's close observation, but she also rolled her eyes at him and crossed them, wrinkling her nose at him when he told her to hold still. He laughed at her and pulled the thermometer from her mouth when it beeped.

Alya shared another communicative glace with Nino, who raised his eyebrows knowingly. ' _Damn, this is a huge change!'_ She thought.

"Hey, you're down to 37.2 degrees!" He announced happily. "Congratulations, I think your fever did break. No more dizziness?"

"No more dizziness, Nurse Adrien." Marinette confirmed.

He quirked a smile at her sass. "Excellent. In this nurse's opinion, I think there's no more concern that you have a concussion. But if you don't feel well tomorrow, make sure you get to a doctor."

Marinette nodded in agreement. "I'm going to be spending the day with my folks tomorrow, so they can take care of me."

Nino shrugged his jacket off finally and took Alya's from her, and moved down the hall to hang them on Marinette's coat tree. "Well, it looks like we're not having tacos for dinner. If you want, I found a coupon for pizza today; I have it in my wallet. And I brought beer because it sounded good to me."

"Pizza and beer?" Marinette wrinkled her nose. "What has America done to you guys?"

Alya put her hand on her hip and gestured dismissively. "Hey, you watch yourself. This is something the Americans have gotten right. Pizza and beer is amazing… Though, I would want to order a salad to go with it."

Adrien shrugged. "Sounds good to me! I love pizza." Privately, he was thinking of the snit Plagg was going to throw if he wasn't allowed to have a slice, and wondering how he would manage to smuggle a portion to the gluttonous little kwami.

While Nino pulled out his phone and pulled up the app to order some pizzas and salad to be delivered, Alya followed Marinette into her storage closet to select a board game to keep them entertained for the evening. Between all the talking and catching up they had to do, though, they certainly wouldn't play very much of it.

.

-oOo-

.

Chloe huffed in irritation as she glanced at the inside of her wrist to check the time on her Tiffany watch. It was 6:45, and Adrien was now fifteen minutes late for their movie date. She picked at a corner on her phone case impatiently for a moment, but decided that she wasn't feeling benevolent enough to keep waiting for him to show up. _'How dare he keep me waiting? And after I went to all that trouble to get these premier tickets for the stupid science fiction movie he was looking forward to!'_

The call rang six times before Adrien picked up. "Hi Chloe, what's up?"

"What's up?" She scoffed lightly. "I'm waiting for you to show up for our movie date tonight, that's what's up. Where are you?"

She heard him gasp slightly, and the sound of a door closing. "Oh my gosh… I am so sorry, I completely forgot about the movie. An emergency came up and I have been dealing with it all day."

Chloe frowned, wondering what sort of emergency came up at work that had kept him there so late on a Friday. "Is everything okay?" And there was an odd quality to his voice that she was unable to decipher.

"Yes, everything's fine." He paused. "I'm sorry but I'm not going to make it to the movie. You should definitely still go and enjoy it, though! Tell me how it is! Maybe we can find another time to go together if you like it."

Chloe bit a nail lightly as she debated her options. Being seen at the premier of the movie was good publicity: she'd already been photographed by several random plebeians and checked her Twitter feed to confirm the postings were suitably worshipful for someone of her status. But without Adrien there she lost his popularity to boost her own… Still, being seen at this dorky sci-fi movie was a good thing, even if it's not what she would have chosen for herself to watch in a million years. Nerds were apparently cool now, after all.

"Okay, well, I'll let you know how it is." She finally let him know.

"Great! Have a good time!"

"Don't stay out too late dealing with this emergency." She instructed him. "I'm sure it's something that can wait for your attention until you're back there on Monday." She lowered her voice and softened it appealingly. "And be sure you get some sleep tonight. Dream of me."

"…Yeah, you too." Again, there was that odd quality to his voice. "Have a good night!"

"Good night, my love."

He ended the call.

Chloe frowned at her phone for a moment, wondering what could have thrown her precious Adrien so off kilter. She didn't like him being out of her sight for too long.

She stood from the leather couch she'd been sitting on in the powder room and straightened her sequined white dress so the hem hit properly at mid-thigh. The mirror helped her correct the slim straps of the dress so they rested correctly against her collar bones and she shrugged her cropped black fur jacket back onto her shoulders. She refreshed her perfume and made sure her makeup was perfect before stepping out of the powder room to strut down the hall to the lobby. The carpet regretfully silenced what she was sure would have otherwise been very satisfying clicks from her violently electric blue stilettos. She had worn them because blue was Adrien's favorite color, gone to waste now since he hadn't been able to make it.

Chloe turned her nose up at the concessions and absently handed her ticket to the young woman collecting them. She took back the stub and smiled at the handsome man holding the door open for those entering the theater.

After she found her seat she spent the duration of the previews looking at her phone. She had Ethan working on an opportunity for her at Los Angeles Fashion Week next year, but due to the lack of emails so far, he hadn't landed anything concrete. She glanced through her Twitter feed for a while but nothing there was interesting enough to hold her attention. News was boring (it wasn't campaign season after all, so no new articles about her or Daddy), so she tried Facebook.

She scrolled past the post from Alya Césaire at first, but a bare glimpse at it made her scroll back.

There was a picture posted showing a dingy room. Césaire was there as was Nino Lahiffe, and across a low table from them sat Adrien, who had his arms spread out across the back of the couch. One of those arms fell behind the shoulders of that uppity Chinese brat Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The post with the image said, **Taking care of a sick friend Marinette's house, and hanging out with my besties!** Chloe looked at the picture of her fiancé more closely; Adrien's smile was enormous, and he was smiling at Marinette…

"He lied to me?" Chloe whispered to herself in disbelief. "He **lied** to me!" She shrieked. Ignoring the looks from the other movie goers, Chloe pulled up Adrien's contact and jabbed the send button. The call rang and rang and eventually went to voice mail.

Feeling absolutely irate, she muttered to herself as she started tapping out a text message to him. Sending that, she tried calling him again, but it rang all the way through to voice mail. She started leaving a message, but before she was finished someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Miss, you must put your phone away during the movie." The man told her. "You are disturbing the other guests."

"Don't touch me." Chloe said sharply, jabbing her phone to end that message. "I am in the middle of something here."

"I'm afraid you will have to step out of the theater to make a phone call." He insisted. "As you can see, you are in the middle of a movie theater as well, and you're causing a disturbance."

Chloe scoffed at him disbelievingly. "Don't you know who I am? My father is the Mayor of Paris!"

The man frowned at her attitude. "Miss, I don't care if your Father is the King of Cashmere, you're leaving this theater. You cannot stay here and ruin the film for other people." He grasped her elbow firmly and began pulling her up out of the chair. Chloe shrieked imprecations as the man gently but insistently pulled her from the theater, followed by several more ushers and the scattered applause of the other movie patrons.

She tugged her elbow free of the man's grasp and tucked her purse under her arm, then stalked the rest of the way out of the building ignoring the ushers and the stares of the common masses. She called Adrien again, and again it rang until it hit voice mail.

"How **dare he** ignore my calls?!" She began tapping out text after text to Adrien, growing more and more irate at his continued lack of response. Finally she called her driver and demanded that he come pick her up from the theater immediately.

While she waited, seething with irritation and embarrassment, she tried calling Adrien again.

.

-oOo-

.

Adrien was having such a great time catching up with Alya and Nino and hanging out at Marinette's apartment that he didn't even realize his phone had been blowing up. They had ordered the pizza, but it hadn't arrived yet, so he was two beers in on an empty stomach and feeling very mellow.

"Oh hey, Adrien, your phone's over here." Nino said from the kitchen when he got up to get himself another beer. "You want it?"

"Yeah, thanks Nino." Adrien tipped back the last of his second beer and set the empty bottle on the console table behind Marinette's sofa. He accepted the phone from Nino and out of habit glanced at the screen.

Five missed calls, three voice mails, and seventeen text messages, all from Chloe. Stomach pinching uncomfortably, Adrien unlocked his phone and scrolled through Chloe's texts. They were not happy texts: she had found a post by Alya on Facebook that tagged the four of them at Marinette's place hanging out. _'Crap, I didn't even notice her take a picture. Oh boy… And I let Chloe assume I have been at the office all day. She's really upset…'_ They started accusatory and got progressively worse.

As he was staring at his phone caught in indecision, it began ringing again. _'I never agreed to go to that movie. I already had these plans when she sprang that on me. I haven't gotten to see my friends in ages; this was what I wanted to do tonight!_ The phone continued ringing until it went automatically to voice mail after several seconds. It was on silent: he had never turned the ringer back on after modeling for the art class that morning. There had been other things on his mind.

He stared at Chloe's picture on his phone when she called again immediately. It was one he had selected for her after her choice was too provocative, his feeling of discontent rising. Beside him Marinette giggled at something Alya had said, Nino laughing from his seat in the chair across the coffee table. Adrien glanced around at the warm picture of his friends hanging out and talking, and then back down at his phone.

Making his decision, he swiped left. He then held down the power button and told the phone to shut down. _'That's tomorrow's Adrien's problem. I'm having too much fun to let it bother me now!'_

.

.

In another part of Paris, standing outside the theater, Chloe Bourgeois stared disbelievingly at her phone, mouth hanging open in an offended gasp. "He swiped left!" She tried him again immediately, but it went straight to voice mail. "He shut off his phone! That shit!"

Reminding herself that it was unattractive to grind her teeth and frowning so much would give her wrinkles, Chloe settled for icy seething. She waited under the theater overhang until her driver pulled up with a short limousine. He came over with an umbrella for her and bid her a good evening, then held it over her head while he walked her to the car and opened the rear door for her.

Chloe slid onto the seat and lightly bit on her thumb nail in vexation. She was too keyed up to go home and go to sleep, and it was still too early in the evening. She decided to call her physical trainer and get in a last minute work out to expend some of her anger.

Adrien she would hunt down and deal with tomorrow.

.

.

Around ten o'clock Marinette announced that her friends needed to clear out so she could get some sleep. It had been so wonderful to see Alya and Nino again, but she was starting to feel the hour. After all, she had been pretty sick, and she needed the extra sleep so she could recover.

Alya offered to spend the night with her if needed to watch over her from having hit her head. Though she knew Alya's intentions were mostly pure, she feared that the other girl would keep her up all night with enthusiastic gossip and chit-chat. Marinette really was feeling much better. She suspected that the large amount of food she'd finally been able to consume and all the sleep she'd gotten had gone directly toward restoring her magic and thus assisting the Miraculous in healing her. A normal person might have needed further observation and a much longer recovery, but she should be well on the mend by this point.

After everyone had put their shoes on, Alya opened the front door of the apartment and all but shoved Nino and Adrien out into the hall, stating, "Sorry boys, but us girls just need a teensy sec." She smiled at them and closed the door in their wondering faces.

Marinette stepped back at the zealous gleam in Alya's eyes. "Oh. My. God! Girl! What is going on with you and Adrien?!" She bit her lip in anticipation.

Marinette shot her down straight away. "You're nuts; nothing's going on. I was sick. I fainted from a fever and hit my head. Adrien is apparently a very polite **bully** and refused to allow me to go to work with a potential TBI." She tugged on the sleeves of her sweater, mentally brushing away the memories of him cupping her face and gazing deeply into her eyes. _'God, he is so beautiful…'_ She shook her head. "He just hung around all day and made sure I didn't go into a coma. I'm still recovering, and I need you to go home because I **need** to sleep."

Alya's zealotry faded a bit into a warm smile. "All teasing aside, I am so proud of you," she confessed. "You were so cool and collected; no stuttering and no running away squealing." She put a friendly hand on Marinette's shoulder, and then added teasingly, "You were like a real conversationalist!"

Marinette smiled back and rolled her eyes, shrugging Alya's hand off. "Yeah, yeah." She pulled the door open again so the guys could step back inside. They grinned and came back in to grab their rain jackets off her coat tree.

She offered to walk them down to the lobby, but they all told her to stay up here and take it easy. She reached out for Nino and pulled him into a big hug. "Glad you're back in town."

"Glad to be back. It's good to see you again." Nino returned the hug, and they exchanged kisses on each cheek. Nino stepped back to let Alya have her turn.

"I've missed you so much this past year!" Alya told her. "Now that we're back we will hang out all the time again!"

Marinette smiled happily. "I will look forward to that." She brushed kisses against each of Alya's cheeks, then stepped back.

She hesitated for just a second before Adrien ( _'Are we close enough of friends for hugs?'_ ), but Adrien had no such hesitation. He stepped forward and almost eagerly pulled Marinette into a warm, close embrace. "Thanks for trusting me to stay here and take care of you today." He murmured softly over the top of her head.

She had literally never been so close to him before, and she was aware of every dip and plain of his chest where he cradled her against him. "Of course I trust you, Adrien. Thank you for all your help." She sighed and brought her arms around him so she could squeeze him back. "I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you."

She happened to glance at Alya past Adrien's shoulder, and her persistent friend mouthed _"Nothing's going on?"_ with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.

Marinette flipped her a one-fingered salute behind Adrien's back. Alya had to bite her scarf to not laugh out loud. Nino just looked really pleased.

Adrien pulled back then and Marinette thought it was over, but he leaned forward and brushed soft, warm lips against each of her cheeks, just as she had gotten from Nino and Alya. She did her best to reciprocate, but she was stunned in the moment. He pulled back and smiled warmly at her and stepped out into the hall. "Take care of yourself, Marinette. You have my number: give me a call if you need anything."

Finally remembering to breathe, Marinette took a slow breath. "I will. Thank you." She waved at them as they walked down the hall and then closed her door.

She threw the bolt home and slipped the lever lock into place, before sighing. She felt the blood rushing to her face in a blush. Adrien had kissed her… They were the platonic cheek kisses French people had been exchanging in salutations and farewell since time immemorial, but he had still kissed her.

She cupped her cheeks with her hands and closed her eyes. "I'm in trouble."

.

-oOo-

.

 ** _Author's Note:_** _Oops, it's been a while. Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay: work got crazy busy and I've been traveling a lot because of that. Here's an extra **extra** long chapter to help make it up to you._

 _I think I've realized that the over-arching tagline for this story is "Don't make it weird." I about died laughing when I realized it, because awkwardness keeps cropping up for both our heroes. Bless their sweet, awkward little hearts._

 _Next time we should see some of how Chloe "deals with" Adrien, and if I planned my notes out correctly, a certain black leather clad beef-cake should arrive on the scene to give us our first MariChat moment of the story, but definitely not the last._

 _As always, my deepest thanks go to Katie H for being my sounding board and asking me the hard questions about my story, and to ArtemisWinter for helping me find all my typos. Many thanks as well to those who take the time to leave me a thoughtful review: when these come to my email they always make me smile._

 _Take care, my gentle readers. Happy Spring!_

 _~Malkharah_


	14. A Confrontation with Chloe

**Chapter 14: A Confrontation with Chloe**

.

-oOo-

.

 _Louis hated the opera._

 _He hated the uncomfortable clothes, their pinching and itching. Having to sit still in the uncomfortable theater chairs and listening to some lady on stage screaming in Italian. This was soooo booooring! He'd rather be **anywhere** than here…_

 _._

 _"Mama, I don't feel good." Maman's cool hands touched his face. He was glad for once that the awful tuxedo he wore was so warm; he felt sure he must seem at least slightly feverish, making the lie more believable. "Can we go home? I want to lie down…" He would have put up with anything to get out of watching this stupid opera, even being treated like a baby. **Anything** …_

 _._

 _Cool air rushing against his face as he sat in the dark car. Maman soothingly combing her fingers through his hair. He remained still, happy to be heading home where he could shut himself in his room and play video games on his phone while pretending to sleep off his 'sickness'…_

 _._

 _The abrupt, loud, sharp noise from another part of the house. CRACK._

 _His brother's sudden shout, and two more repetitions of that sharp, percussive sound; CRACK CRACK. A heavy thud._

 _Maman grabbing him by the arm and pulling him down the hall to the safe room._

 _Papa charging up the stairs, cricket bat in hand._

 _CRACK._

 _Papa crumpling like a broken doll back down the stairs, leaving behind a fine ruby mist where his chest had been._

 _Maman's scream._

 _The man aiming his gun at them._

 _CRACK CRACK. The shots like **thunder** in his ears!_

 _Maman fell first. She shielded him with her body…_

 ** _CRACK._**

 _Pain! So much pain!_

 _Tears flooding Maman's eyes and running down her cheeks. The sparkle of her wedding ring. Blood on her face…_

 _…_

 ** _Anything? I would have done anything?! … … … It's all my fault…_**

.

-oOo-

.

Thunder crashed deafeningly.

Marinette sat up with a sharp gasp, clutching her left shoulder in pain and panic, panting in fear. She gazed wildly around her room, searching for an attacker that wasn't there.

She was alone. Rain threw itself in bands against her windows, coming down harder than it had yet in this strangely lingering storm system. Lightning burst across the sky in the distance, cloud to cloud, and the thunder followed several seconds later this time, low and rumbling and shaking her windows.

Slowly her breathing returned to normal.

She pulled her hand away from her left shoulder, wondering why she had grabbed herself like that immediately upon awaking. Her shoulder felt fine, though the fingers of her left hand tingled unpleasantly as though they were restoring circulation.

She sniffed and realized there were tears on her face.

 _'What a horrible nightmare that must have been!'_ Marinette began shaking her hand out to disburse the sharp prickly pins stabbing her nerves. She rubbed her other hand across her face to remove the tears, then began massaging her stinging fingertips. _'I'm glad I can't remember what it was about.'_ All she could recall was bright flashes of light and a horrible, crushing sense of guilt. It felt familiar though, as though it were a nightmare she'd had before…

She was staring off into the middle distance when Tikki found her some time later, fingers of her left hand curled up against her left shoulder, elbow braced against her knee.

"Marinette, I'm surprised you're awake!" Tikki greeted her cheerfully. "Good morning!"

Marinette blinked at her dazedly. She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn. "Oh, good morning, Tikki." She said finally.

"Are you feeling better? How did you sleep?" Tikki asked as she settled on Marinette's upright knee beside the tip of her elbow.

Marinette frowned slightly, staring out in to the storm. "I woke up from a nightmare."

Tikki dry washed her tiny hands. "Oh! I'm sorry I wasn't here."

Marinette blinked at her, then smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine; can't even remember what it was about. I am feeling somewhat better, though; still tired and kinda achy, but not like I was hit by a bus anymore." She glossed a fingertip over Tikki's softly fuzzy head in a gesture of affection. Her finger came away with a light dusting of flour. "What have you been up to this morning?" She asked, rubbing the fine dust away on her quilts.

"I'm making chocolate chip pancakes!" Tikki announced proudly.

Marinette laughed. "With what? We don't have any food."

The scarlet goddess just chuckled at her. "Come down stairs and see." Tikki zipped away over the wall and down to the kitchen.

Marinette changed slowly out of the clothes she had worn to sleep in and found a new outfit: dark wine colored leggings and a cream colored thick jersey dress with long sleeves, topped with a handkerchief hemmed sweater in charcoal grey. She put an elastic belt high around her waist, and then pulled thick leg black boot socks on after considering the looks of the rain outside and glancing at the weather app on her phone. It wasn't going to get much above twelve degrees Celsius. She stepped into her slippers before descending from the loft, hugging the sweater around her.

Tikki had a cup of tea already waiting for her, steam curling above the rim. She really was making pancakes. As Marinette sat down before her mug of tea, she watched Tikki flip a small pancake with a spatula then scoop up a finished one and phase through the oven door to add it to a growing stack she had already completed.

"Where did you find the ingredients for all this?" Marinette asked, bewildered.

Tikki took a scoop of pancake batter from a bowl she had beside the stove and carefully ladled it onto the hot skillet, lips curling into a sly grin. "It seems like your nurse saw fit to fill a prescription for you."

"My nurse?" Marinette felt her cheeks burn when she thought of his gentle green eyes as he smiled down at her last night after kissing her cheeks.

Tikki dropped the ladle back into the batter and swooped over to the pantry to pull a door open. The shelves inside, previously quite barren, were bursting at the seams with bags, bottles, boxes and jars of shelf stable goods. Marinette gaped.

Grinning openly now, Tikki zipped over to the cupboard that housed Marinette's dwindling tea collection: dwindling no longer. The cupboard was full of new boxes and canisters of teas of all sorts.

Not done yet, Tikki giggled joyfully as she zoomed over to the refrigerator under the counter. Tugging hard against the seal, she popped the doors open and clapped her little hands together in delight. "Look at all this!" She exclaimed, so happy she was literally glowing. The fridge was packed with a veritable rainbow of produce, meats, and cheeses. Fresh milk, eggs, butter; everything she could have thought to buy for herself as basic staple ingredients. "Adrien went grocery shopping online for you! He's so thoughtful!" She squealed like a little girl with a crush.

Marinette couldn't help but laugh at Tikki's enthusiasm, but inside her heart was doing the backstroke through a lake of golden syrup. _'He bought me groceries. He bought me groceries? That's so… So… So **sweet** of him. **Kind** and **thoughtful**. I just can't even…'_ Her face began to burn even worse, that syrup bubbling and starting to boil. _'Oh this is not good! No! No! No crush! You can't have a crush on him! It's not allowed! Stop it! Stop it, you traitorous heart!'_

She pressed both hands to her cheeks and mentally took a strangle hold on her heart, suplexing it into the boxing ring of her emotions, trying to knock it out before it really got its feet under it again. She couldn't afford to go more rounds with this crush! _'We're friends! Just friends! That's all we are and it's all we'll ever be! He's going to marry Chloe! Don't do this to yourself!'_

The reminder to herself that Adrien was engaged to Chloe really helped her get herself under control. Of course it made her a bit sad, too, which Tikki noticed immediately. "Marinette, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" The black haired girl insisted, waving her hands rapidly back and forth. She jostled her mug of tea, but caught it before it could spill more than a few drops. "Nothing's wrong! Everything's great! This was so nice of him... I'll definitely have to find a way to pay him back for all of this! How much do you think he spent?"

Tikki eyeballed her skeptically but decided not to push her on it. Swinging the doors of the fridge shut once more, she said, "I have no idea, and I'm sure he'll never tell you. He wouldn't want you to stress about trying to pay him back. He did this for you of his own free will, out of the goodness of his heart, because he's your friend and he cares about you." Causally, while she was talking, she drifted back to the skillet and flipped the newer pancake before scooping up the finished one and phasing it into the oven to stay warm. "Really, just be thankful and tell him so. He'll appreciate that more."

Marinette gripped her mug of tea harder. "I do appreciate it. I **do**."

Tikki smiled gently at her. "Then tell him that."

Marinette nodded, though her expression was still clouded.

Tikki picked up the ladle and rapped it on the side of her batter bowl. "Now come over here and scoop out the last pancake. The bowl is too big for me to lift and scrape at the same time."

Finally, the super hero smiled. "Yes ma'am."

.

-oOo-

.

The office was practically deserted this Saturday. Adrien didn't mind having to come in on the weekend to make up his time spent with Marinette yesterday, but he did miss the usual bustle of people. He exchanged greetings with the member of the building maintenance staff he passed as he exited the elevator, but that was the only person he saw on his way in to his office. Since there would be no clients and no visits from other executives, Adrien just dropped his messenger bag over the back of one of the couches in his office and made himself a latte quickly at the kitchenette in the corner.

Also not terribly concerned about surprise intruders, Plagg tugged Adrien's hat out of his jacket pocket and carried it over to the desk where he could curl up inside it and have a nice relaxing nap. Directly on top of Adrien's keyboard, as chance would have it.

When he was done fixing his latte, Adrien turned around and rolled his eyes at Plagg's choice of napping spots. He gently pushed the hat to one side, not forgetting to scratch Plagg behind one little ear for a few moments, then retrieved his laptop from his bag and locked it into the docking station on his desk so he could get to work. He spent about an hour working on the last of his online coursework that he was not able to finish at Marinette's house before he was finally done with the week's work.

Draining the last of his latte, Adrien decided to mow through whatever work Marie had left in his inbox. There wasn't much there for him though, and it didn't take long before he was all caught up on tasks for the charity art auction he was managing during fashion week.

Plagg snorted and rolled over inside his hat, wiggling around until he got comfortable again. Adrien just smiled at the chaotic little god fondly. He took a few moments to lean back in his chair and gaze out at the storm, wondering how Ladybug was doing. His smile faded.

She had been in rough shape when they fought that akuma yesterday morning, weak and obviously sick. He really hoped that she was able to lay low and take it easy. _'But no boyfriend to take care of her.'_ He chose not to examine how that thought made him feel. Instead he found a few recipes on Pinterest for nice brothy chicken soup and sent them to her through EncryptID. Hopefully she had someone who could take care of her, even if it couldn't be him.

The rain was finally tapering off when he was done with that, lightning and thunder dying back to an occasional spark and low rumble in the distance. _'I **really** hope this rain clears out soon. I miss the sun.'_

Thinking of Ladybug brought back the memory of last Tuesday evening as well. He had taken the printouts they got from the jewelry store manager promising to do some research on them, but hadn't gotten the chance to follow up on it. Now was as good a time as any.

Adrien minimized his work programs and pulled up a private browsing window on his computer. He tried searching for descriptions of the jewelry, tried matching images, tried to find who had designed the jewelry in case the designer was significant somehow… He spent about forty five minutes battling with the enormous amount of nothing helpful that the internet had to offer, before his phone chimed.

Pushing the chair away from his desk in disgust, Adrien glanced at his phone screen.

It was a message from Marinette.

 _Thank you so much for all these groceries! I'm a little embarrassed that you felt you had to buy all this for me… Tell me what I owe you and I'll be sure to pay you back!_

Adrien didn't realize he was smiling at his phone, but Plagg saw the fond gleam in his chosen's eye as he grinned down at the little piece of technology. The tiny cat god watched his boy through the slit of one sleepy eye for a moment enjoying the contentedness Adrien was exuding before yawning and stretching out of his nap. He drifted through the air over to Adrien's shoulder before plopping down there to watch the battle of wills on the glowing screen.

 ** _You don't owe me anything! Just get better, okay?_**

Marinette's reply came quickly; she must be focused on the conversation too. _Don't do that to me! I'll be so far in your debt I'll have to sell an organ to pay you back._

 ** _No, don't sell an organ. That's messy. Just give me your firstborn child._**

 _I might have to! Tell me what this all cost and I'll just write you a check!_

 ** _I'll never tell. ;)_**

 _… Dammit, Adrien…_

Adrien chuckled at her message. **_Please don't concern yourself with it. Truly. You owe me nothing. This way you don't have to go grocery shopping until you're better again! If you feel you must pay me back, you can do so by recovering from your sickness. Are you still feeling better today? How's your head?_**

 _I am feeling better. My head's fine, I just have a lump and a bruise, but it's nothing I'm not used to. I'm sure it'll fade quickly. I'm going to head to—_

The door to his office slammed open.

Adrien jumped to his feet in surprise, dislodging Plagg with a startled little hiss and accidentally flinging his phone halfway across the room to bounce loudly off a window before clattering to the floor. The kwami tumbled nearly to the carpet before he was able to right himself and zip under the desk to hide.

Chloe Bourgeois stood in his office door, one hand outstretched from slamming it open, and the other clutching the strap of her oversized Fendi tote purse. Her knuckles were white and her eyes were cool, glinting like two sharp chips of ice in her otherwise passive face.

She stepped inside before closing the door behind her. Adrien swallowed when the click of the latch sounded too much to him like the latch of a prison cell.

"Chloe! Hello…" He put a pleasant smile on his face. "How are you today?"

Chloe ignored him for the moment. She swayed over to the sofa and set her purse down beside his messenger bag, then began shrugging off her navy blue Burberry trench coat.

Forcing a light sounding chuckle, he tried again. "You startled me, slamming the door open like that… I was just finishing up some things here in the office that I wasn't able to get done yesterday."

"Oh?" She finally spoke. She braced her hands against her hips, rocking herself sharply to one side so her hip stuck out and somehow made it seem as though she were looking down at him even though she was several feet away and inches shorter than he. "And why is that?"

 _'Straight to the point, then.'_ Adrien took a deep breath. "Well, like I said last night, I had an emergency come up that I had to take care of."

Her eyes narrowed. "You did say that. What sort of emergency was that exactly?"

Knowing it would only make her angry, Adrien tried to soften the truth. "Oh, it wasn't anything super serious, but it did keep me out of the office all day."

What little color there was drained out of Chloe's face in her anger. "You were out of the office **all day**?!" She turned and leaned over the back of the couch to fish her phone out of the depths of her bag, her movements jerky with barely contained agitation. "Would that have something to do with **this**?!" She tapped the phone screen a few times, hard enough that he heard her acrylic nails clacking against the glass, before stalking over and shoving her phone in his face. Her ire made her perfume much stronger, and the combination began to burn his nostrils.

Stepping back, so he could take the phone and bring it back into focus, Adrien's eyes finally registered what she was showing him. _'Ah shit…'_

On the screen was a blurry image of him carrying Marinette bridal-style from the university to his waiting town car. He swiped left to another image showing Marinette getting into the car, Adrien's hand gripping her elbow to ease her onto the seat. He swiped again, and the third picture barely showed Adrien through the rear window of the car, his face turned towards Marinette who wasn't really visible, and the driver of the town car glancing to once side, probably doing a security check. If one chose to do so, it might appear as though the driver were checking to be sure no one had caught the passengers getting into the vehicle. The photos could easily be taken out of context, and he could see how the tabloid could spin it in any manner they chose. Probably not a good one, based on his experience with tabloids.

"So…" Chloe's voice was sharp and hard, but little above a whisper, "Would you like to tell me exactly what you did yesterday?"

Adrien slowly released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "Marinette was sick… I was just lending her a hand." He told her honestly. Her expression didn't change by a millimeter. A drop of sweat tickled the space between his shoulder blades. He felt too much like a stray cornered by animal control. "Look I'm sorry about the movie, but I ne—"

"We'll come back to the movie in a second." Chloe cut him off. "First, tell me why you were spending time with Marinette. After our conversation on Thursday, I thought we had agreed that you were not going to be friends with her."

"Well no… What I said on Thursday was that I agreed to think about what you had said…" He hesitated, searching for the right words. Chloe's eyes narrowed dangerously. "And I did think about it. But I decided that I get to choose my friends… After all the years of being home schooled and isolated and having barely any friends at all, I finally get to make and have any friends I want… And I can't let some silly, trivial tabloid articles interfere with that."

Chloe's expression darkened. "So you're willing to risk the bad publicity, the paparazzi, the scandal all this is going to bring? Don't you care what people are going to say about you?"

Adrien frowned. "Anything they say other than the truth will be a sensationalist lie. Chloe, it won't matter in the long run. But friends do matter. They are important to me."

Her finely sculpted brows lowered and when she spoke her voice sounded hurt. "Aren't I important to you?"

Aghast, Adrien placed gentle hands on Chloe's shoulders. "Chloe… Of course. Of course you're important to me."

She threw her arms up, knocking his hands from her shoulders and poking him in the chest with one manicured nail. "But not important enough for you to keep our date last night! I was waiting for you at the theater for an hour. An **hour** , Adrien! I was expecting you to be there with me so we could have a nice date and see a movie together!"

He sighed. He did feel bad about that. "Look, I am sorry about that. But I got caught up helping Marinette."

She hissed. Actually hissed! It was a sharp noise of air drawn through her teeth. "So you ditched work and flaked out on me to play hooky with **her**?!"

"What? No!" He couldn't believe how out of proportion this was getting. "I told you she was sick! She had a fever that made her faint, and she fell and hit her head. She lives alone, but the doctor said someone should stay with her to be sure she would be okay."

"Then why did you lie to me last night about where you were?"

"I didn't lie to—"

"You didn't correct me either!" She snapped. Her finger was still poking him in the chest and it was beginning to hurt, which wasn't helping his temper. "I asked if whatever it was couldn't wait for you to deal with it when you got back to work on Monday, and you didn't say anything. You let me believe that you were caught up with something **at work**!" She finally shouted, voice sharp and eyes frosty. "You intentionally deceived me. It's the same thing as lying."

"I'm sorry you felt deceived, but I never said it was a work emergency." He pointed out, frustrated at having to repeat himself. She wasn't listening to him… And if he had explained himself properly in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue. That was the worst part: this whole situation was his fault. "It was a medical emergency. My friend needed me."

" **I** needed you!" Her voice rose in volume and pitch, enough that it pierced his ears. He was glad it was a Saturday and there was no one here to witness this. "How do you think I felt waiting for you at the theater alone? You ditched out on our date, stranding me at the grand premier of _The Origin_ ; this huge blockbuster movie that you were looking forward to seeing. I went out of my way to get tickets for us so we could go together! And when you were late I called to check on you, only for you to lie to me about where you were! Don't you care how I felt, standing outside the theater in the rain **after you hung up on me**?" She jabbed her finger into his sternum again several times to punctuate her argument and he felt a muscle near his eye twitch, an ache beginning behind his forehead. "You hung up on me and turned off your phone so I couldn't call again. All so that you could slum it, and get drunk with your lame little commoner friends from middle school!

Appalled, Adrien backpedaled. "We were not drunk!"

Chloe finally withdrew her finger from his sternum, only to snatch her forgotten phone from his fingers. Adrien refused to rub the now aching spot where her sharp nail had been digging in. Chloe tapped the phone screen a few times and thrust it back into his face. The ache behind his forehead throbbed.

This time it was Alya's post that they were taking care of the sick Marinette. The picture was dark, but he could clearly see that Alya had taken the picture at a moment when Adrien had been relaxing into the couch, one long arm stretched along the back behind Marinette's shoulders and the other hand holding a bottle of beer. It was a small favor that she hadn't actually tagged him in the post: it would cut down a lot on who could see it. He had his privacy settings ridiculously high for obvious reasons. There were a few more pictures Alya had taken: Adrien eating a piece of pizza. Him throwing a pillow at Nino. Adrien teasing Marinette with a handful of playing cards and her shoving his hands back towards him, refusing to cheat. They were totally innocent, with nothing even remotely scandalous in them.

When Adrien looked back up he found that Chloe had moved to retrieve his phone from where he had accidentally flung it when she startled him. It was just his luck that the screen was still unlocked and showing the conversation he'd been having with Marinette. He hadn't gotten to read her last message fully, and he doubted there was anything questionable there either, but Chloe's face had shifted from white to dark pink with rage.

She opened her mouth, but Adrien spoke before she could start screaming at him.

"Whatever you're thinking, Chloe, you're wrong." Adrien wanted to cut off whatever ridiculous scenario she had concocted in her fear and anger. He snagged his phone out of her hands and pocketed it: the thought of Chloe reading through his conversation with Marinette made him deeply uneasy. She would pick it apart and invent things that hadn't been there.

"I didn't mean to deceive you: I was distracted when you called, so if I didn't make any corrections to your assumption that I was at work, it's only because I didn't hear or didn't understand what you'd said. You want the truth about where I was yesterday? Fine. Marinette was sick. Extremely sick! I told you I am doing some volunteer work for her university, so I happened to be in the room when she collapsed from her fever and hit her head on the floor. I carried her out to the car because she literally could not stand, and she lives alone so I offered to stay at her apartment to make sure she was okay."

Chloe made an indelicate sound. "If she was **so** sick and **so** injured, why didn't you just call an ambulance for her and be done with it?"

"I tried to." He fought to keep the deepening growl out of his voice. "She didn't want one. I called my own physician to get his advice, and he said it wouldn't be necessary, so I let it go. But she **did** need someone there to check on her periodically and make sure her symptoms didn't get worse. She spent the whole day sleeping in her room, and I sat on her couch doing my homework. She wasn't even up and moving around until the evening when Nino and Alya came over to check on her."

That last bit was a small lie, Nino and Alya hadn't come to check on her they'd come to hang out and catch up, play games. But what Chloe didn't know wouldn't hurt her… "We ordered some pizzas and visited for a few hours. I had two beers. Just two. No one was anywhere near drunk. I left at ten o'clock and gave Nino and Alya a ride to their flat, and then I went home. That's it."

She was still frowning at him mistrustfully. "Then why did you reject my call and shut your phone off?"

 _'Because I knew you were going to yell at me and I didn't want you to do it in front of my friends. Because I made my plans with my friends before you ever told me about the movie. Because I haven't seen Nino and Alya in over a year and I've missed them horribly. Because I was having so much fun and I didn't want you to ruin it. Because I was trying to avoid **this**.' _Adrien took a deep breath. "I didn't mean to reject your call. My fingers were greasy from the pizza and the phone slipped. My battery died right after that: I spent a good part of the day on my phone and I didn't have my charger with me." The lies tasted bitter on his tongue, but told them to her anyway.

Chloe weighed his words. Finally she said, "Do you know the media thinks she's your lover?"

Adrien blinked at her. He felt his jaw unhinge and sag in shock. "What? That's…"

She snagged her phone from the corner of his desk where he had discarded it and moved to another app she had open, and read aloud, "According to French Inquirer, 'Adrien Agreste was seen carrying the lovely petite young woman from Monday's sensational lunch date out of the university to his waiting limousine. Off to another romantic date, perhaps? Who is this mysterious dark haired interloper? Does she have her sights on Paris' hottest male super model? Is this the end of Chlodrien?'"

Angry now at how accusatory Chloe was and how ridiculously out of perspective the entire situation had become thanks to her irrational fears and with the help of those idiotic tabloids, Adrien scoffed and dropped to sit back in his chair. Spinning back to his monitor, he realized he still had the search window open for the jewelry that had been stolen by the akuma. She couldn't possibly learn anything from the open search window or images that he had open, the jewelry had no perceptible link to the akuma or Ladybug, but instinct won over logic: his instinct said that that was part of his forbidden second life, and that Chloe must not see it (no matter how innocuous). Without much thought, he closed the browser and shuffled the papers together, intent on stuffing them into a drawer of his desk.

Suspicious, Chloe snatched them out of his hands and examined the pages. "What is all this?"

"It's nothing! Some things for the charity auction I'm running during Fashion Week." Adrien said, trying to keep the growl out of his voice. It wasn't often he got angry, and it took a lot to get him there, but man oh man was Chloe driving him in that direction. "Could I have them back, please? I wasn't done doing the research."

Glancing over them skeptically one more time, Chloe finally tossed the pages back onto Adrien's desk. "Why were you trying to hide them, then?"

"Oh my god!" Adrien had had enough. "I wasn't trying to hide them! I was just putting them away." He stood up again and ran a hand roughly through his hair, not knowing what to do with all the agitated energy simmering under his skin.

Chloe loomed into his space again, an expression on her face he normally thought of as petulant and her mouth open to speak. "You snatched your phone out of my hands, too. What was in your conversation that you didn't want me to see? Hmm?"

Her sharp burning perfume filled his sinuses, his headache throbbed again painfully, and he was done.

Adrien turned very calm.

His voice fell flat and unfriendly between them like a heavy weight. "Chloe, stop this. You are being ridiculous. This entire conversation is absurd. That article is complete garbage. Marinette was sick and injured. She is my friend so I helped her. It was the right thing to do. The media can come up with any number of stupid, idiotic fables they want about me but no one believes them, because they're trash. French Inquirer isn't news, it isn't respectable media; it's a tabloid. A total gossip rag. Two years ago they printed an article claiming I was the illegitimate love child of Nicole Kidman and Brad Pitt. Three years ago they said I was time traveling half-alien from another dimension! The same tabloid! You really shouldn't read this crap, Chloe. It'll rot your brain."

At this point Chloe actually looked slightly chastened, her lip protruding in a pout and eyes downcast.

Sensing that her current tactic wasn't working any longer, Chloe shifted gears. Her eyes welled with tears and her lip quivered when she said, "Why are you angry with me? I haven't done anything wrong. What am I supposed to believe when you won't talk to me?"

Adrien hissed softly between his teeth. He hated when she got like this, weepy and wounded; it always made him feel so guilty, and he already felt bad enough about this whole situation.

Her eyes were wet and glassy, pink at the rims from her tears, when she stepped closer to him. She sighed, "I just don't like feeling like I can't trust you…" and rested her head against his chest softly.

Though he hadn't corrected her assumption that he was held up at work, he hadn't meant to hurt her either. He did regret not correcting her on the phone last night… No, she was right. He had lied. He lied by omission. It wasn't one of his finer moments. But even so, he didn't think he would have done much differently last night: he had a great time with his friends. He had missed Nino and Alya fiercely while they were abroad, and getting to catch up with them had been amazing. And having the opportunity to rebuild his friendship with Marinette, a friendship that had been so small and delicate to begin with, felt really good as well.

So he knew he didn't regret it… But hurting Chloe, lying to her; that he did regret. Though he knew the only thing he would have changed would have been to prevent Alya from posting those pictures to Facebook and thereby being caught. That just made him feel even worse.

All the anger drained out of him, and in its place that pit of guilt sat uncomfortably in his chest. "You can trust me, Chloe. I would never intentionally do anything to jeopardize our relationship. I am sorry you felt deceived; it wasn't my intention to lie to you. There was just a lot going on… I think I understand your fears, but I need you to understand that it's very important to me to keep in touch with my old friends. I don't have many, but the ones I do have are important to me."

He smoothed a hand down her back in a loose hug. "I know you two didn't get along when we were younger, but please try to let that go. Marinette was one of the first friends I made when I got to start public school. I can't help but feel I was lucky to run into her again after all this time. She's really a very nice person. I think you might get along if you would just try."

Chloe snorted. "When Hell freezes over." She said it so softly, Adrien was sure he wasn't supposed to have heard her.

He set his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back a bit to make eye contact. "Regardless, Marinette is my friend and she needed my help. I will never turn my back on people who need me."

Chloe did roll her eyes at him then, and sniffed wetly, dabbing below her eyes with her fingers to be sure she didn't ruin her makeup. She gave a soft laugh through her tears. "Please. You sound like some kind of super hero wannabe."

He managed not to laugh at that, somehow.

Chloe's teary eyes shone brightly like polished grey-blue stones. She advanced again, placing a hand on his chest and stepping into his space, pinning him gently against the edge of his desk with her body. "I don't want to fight about this anymore. I won't let her come between us. And since you apologized for lying and flaking on me for the movie last night and confessed to where you were all day yesterday… I'll forgive you."

Adrien felt relieved that she was willing to let the argument go, finally, but cringed at how she chose to summarize each of his indiscretions as if highlighting how horrible he had been. It made that weight of guilt on his chest heavier.

Her hand smoothed the soft grey fabric of his tee shirt, nail picking absently at the edge of the screened graphic. Her cool blue eyes dropped to his mouth and she leaned more fully into him, lightly grasping the front of his shirt to pull him down into a gentle kiss. He leaned down to meet her. This would help her feel better, help soothe her fears.

What started as a gentle affirmation slowly escalated as Chloe's grip on his shirt tightened, one hand leaving his chest and sliding up to grip the hair behind his ear, tenderly at first then with increasing fervor. Her knee slid between his and her lips moved against his own with increasing demand, tongue pressing forward and gliding over his as though she were staking claim and taking possession of his mouth.

Despite himself, the kiss felt good. His hands abandoned their steadying grip on the edge of his desk in favor of grasping onto her, and he kissed Chloe back just as deeply. There was only so much frustration and tension he could handle, and this confrontation with her had been more tense than any they'd had in a long while, so he took from her what she freely offered and gave some back… Just for this one, small moment.

When a different pair of blue eyes flickered through his mind like a flame, he released her and pulled back for air.

Chloe relinquished her hold on his shirt and hair, observing with approval at the image he made. Tousled and breathing a little harder than normal, his lips pink and slightly swollen. This is how he should always look for her; her and no one else.

She stepped back and smoothed her dress over her hips, the fabric rumpled from Adrien's hands. With a satisfied curve of her lips, she turned and swayed across the office to collect her things from the couch. She felt assured that she must have pushed any possible thoughts of that Dupain Cheng harlot out of his mind for good. Adrien was quite genial and normally very compliant so long as she explained things for him properly. She just had to make sure he understood the way things were. He was being stubborn about this, so she wanted to reiterate the situation for him once more.

Opening the door, Chloe turned back to say softly, "While I'm away, don't spend any more time with Marinette Dupain Cheng; especially not alone. If you must associate with her because of your volunteer work, please remember to keep professional boundaries. The media will see everything, and they will find ways to fill in every blank you offer."

As she turned back to look at him over her shoulder, she smiled. "I'll have my people call your people and get something scheduled for us later next week, once I'm back from New York. We really must set a date for the wedding. Maybe something near Christmas…"

She paused, making sure she had his full attention before adding, "I expect I won't see any more articles about you and **her** being alone together. And I don't want to find you've lied to me about something like this ever again. No matter how much you think you know her from years back, you don't. Remember who it is you're engaged to marry: you belong to me, and you'd better not forget it."

Chloe appreciated the glory of the flush rising in his cheeks as she pulled the door closed. Really, he was so innocent. She lived for catching him by surprise with her dominance.

Wearing a smile of grim self-assurance, she stalked down the hall toward the elevator. Adrien's desire to wait until their wedding night was so quaint and old fashioned. She had tried many times in the past to coax him into the physical aspects of their relationship, but his shyness always prevailed. Kisses like the one they had just shared were designed to show him what he was missing out on, to whet his appetites. She couldn't wait until she could tie him to a bed and do despicable things to him. However, she did have a good enough sense of him to know though that if she moved too fast, before she had him safely married to her, that he would bolt like a startled fawn.

When she returned from New York she would have to force Adrien to agree to a wedding date. One as soon as humanly possible: she wouldn't tolerate waiting any longer. They would have to throw enough money at it to make Daddy blanch, but that was no problem of hers. Daddy would do anything she asked.

And then Adrien would be hers at last.

A small satisfied smile on her face, the faint thrill of anticipation in her belly, Chloe placed a phone call to her assistant.

"Ethan, meet me at my place. I need your help with something."

.

-oOo-

.

The flush in Adrien's face was not from shy excitement.

He was mad.

She forbade him from seeing his friend. All that talk of trust and forgiveness, and in parting she **forbade** him from seeing Marinette. After he explained how much he valued her as his friend? _'How dare she?'_

Plagg drifted back up next to his chosen, frowning deeply after the departed blonde, a growl rumbling low in his chest. "Well that was some shit. Did she just tell you that you **weren't allowed** to see the Princess anymore?"

The fine hairs on the back of Adrien's neck were standing on end. _'That's not right. It's not fair! Chloe doesn't get to decide that!'_

"Did she seriously try to tell you that you belong to her?!" Plagg's voice carried a deep note of anger and resentment. He scoffed harshly. "Kid, you're a cat! You don't belong to nobody!"

Adrien was surprised Plagg was so upset. He was normally so laid back. But Adrien could feel the same deep seated irritation in his gut, the irrational urge to ruin something out of spite. But that was the cat instincts, not his.

 _'I can't believe the way she turned that around and left… I hate when she does that to me. She's manipulative, and I know she's manipulating me, and I still fall for it.'_ That twitch near his eye fluttered again; stress and Chloe's perfume and the ache in his forehead all working against him. _'And even though I know, I still feel guilty for lying to her. How does she do that? Why do I let her?'_

Needing to move, to do something, he started regathering the papers Chloe had tossed back on his desk. "I'm not actually a cat, though."

Plagg snorted and dropped to the surface of the desk to stand on all fours beside the mouse, back arched and tail poofed up like a bottlebrush. "You've been the avatar of a deity embodied as a cat, using cat-themed magical powers and abilities based on agility and destruction, for more than five years. If you're not a cat, you're the closest damn thing to it." He scuffed his rear feet on the mouse pad like a Tom burying a pile of scat, the gesture aimed in the direction of the door through which Chloe had departed. "Trying to tell you you're her property. Tch!"

Adrien tried to calm down, he really did. But the irritation from Chloe's actions and declaration just kept simmering in his chest. He realized that he could still scent Chloe's perfume in the air, and on his clothes and skin, and he got up to pace back and forth before the windows behind his desk and burn off some of that simmering energy. He made only three turns before he couldn't stand being enclosed, staying in the same space as her lingering smell.

"C'mon Plagg." He quickly grabbed his laptop and undocked it, sliding it into the desk drawer and locking it with his keys.

Plagg popped into the air and zipped over to him, sensing Adrien's mood. Adrien scooped the kwami into his hand and locked the office door behind him, before jogging down the hallway to the stair well. "Where are we going? Can we go barf a hair ball in her favorite shoes? Can we use her most expensive purse as a scratching post?"

Adrien shook his head and smiled grimly, climbing the steps up to the roof. He pushed open the door to rain soaked roofing gravel. "Not today, buddy. Today we're just going to run. Claws out!"

Plagg gave him a flat look before allowing himself to be pulled into the ring. "Lame. Remember the hairball for next time!"

Chat Noir took a deep breath of the cool damp air to clear out his lungs then dashed for the side of the roof and leapt from the top of the building into the open sky.

.

-oOo-

.

Marinette accepted the box of pastries from her dad after having stepped back into her rain boots for the walk home. "Thanks, Papa. I'll make sure to find a good home for these." She patted her already so full tummy, still slightly uncomfortable from the amount of chicken stew and fluffy dumplings she'd packed away at dinner. "They'll just have to wait until tomorrow."

Tom smiled down at his daughter before brushing a whiskery kiss across her forehead. "Just take care of yourself, cupcake. Make sure you take it easy again tomorrow."

"I will, I promise." Marinette assured him.

"Are you sure your dad can't give you a ride home?" Sabine was clutching Marinette's new oversized green paisley umbrella. "Or you could spend the night here. It wouldn't take anything to put some sheets on the guest bed."

Marinette considered it. "Nah… I really am feeling even better than before. Your good food and that nap I had really helped. I'll be alright. It's just a twenty minute walk."

Sabine's worried frown deepened a little. "Sweetie, I want you to send us a text message when you make it home."

"Of course." Marinette agreed easily. "Please don't worry so much, Mom. I'll be fine."

She accepted the bag with the leftover chicken stew and dumplings (from one of the recipes Chat had sent to Ladybug earlier that day, not that she could tell her mom how she'd come by it) and shifted her burdens around until she could give her mom a one armed hug. "Thanks for babying me today, you guys. I'm feeling loads better."

Sabine smiled up at her and brushed her bangs away from the coloring bump there so she could place a gentle kiss nearby. The place she'd smacked her head on the art studio floor was a vibrant patch of purples and deep reds, the bump still quite visible near her hairline. Thankfully her bangs mostly disguised it; she wouldn't have enjoyed having to explain what had happened to all and sundry, nor the stares she may have garnered.

"Please just be careful, Marinette." Her mother told her softly. "Take care of yourself. If I don't get a text message telling me you're home safe within a reasonable amount of time, I'm going to come looking for you."

"Mom, stop it!" Marinette laughed. "I can take care of myself, I'll be fine and I promise I'll text you as soon as I get home. You guys have a good night, and I'll see you again on Wednesday. Love you!"

Once she was able to escape from the backdoor of the bakery she popped open her new umbrella and took a deep breath of the damp air and began her trek down the block toward home. The thunder storm that had awoken her that morning had tapered off around noon, and this lighter steady rain had persisted for the remainder of the day.

She had heard on the news that the Seine was approaching flood stage, and that worried her the same as it worried most Parisians. With flooding imminent, city officials were beginning to discuss the necessity of erecting elevated flood barriers along the river, and possibly sandbagging where needed. The river did rise each spring with the melt of winter snows from the French Alps and surrounding areas, but fall was usually the dry season. This unusual storm system had lingered over the middle of the country for a full week now, dumping water in unprecedented amounts; so much so that flood damage was already beginning to occur farther away from the river. This morning there had been a road washed out by a flash flood near Créteil, the substructure of the road worn away by the heavy downpour. Four cars had slid into a gulley with a load of saturated mud. Thankfully no one had been badly hurt.

Lost in her thoughts Marinette missed the squeak of wet leather and the sharp clack of metal striking concrete. When a low voice purred softly behind her she started violently and nearly dropped her box of pastries again as she spun around.

"A good evening to you, fair damsel. Oop!" He lunged and caught the teetering pink box before it could do more than begin to slide out of her grasp. In her spin she nearly clobbered him with the pointed ribs of her umbrella, but he managed to lunge low enough that they only brushed the tips of his ears dark ears.

Golden mane wild and gleaming wetly in the declining light of dusk, locks stuck to his forehead and sculpted cheekbones along with the black mask, Chat Noir grinned up at her through the rain.

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-oOo-

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 ** _Author's Note:_** _Hiya! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I hemmed and hahed and dithered a lot about writing it, knowing where I wanted it to go but not sure how I was going to get it there, but when I actually sat down to **do** the thing, it just sort of fell out. And then I had to rewrite the argument like… four times to get the feel of it just right. I think I'm satisfied with it now, so here you are. Procrastinating doesn't ever help. I must remember: less dithering, more writing._

 _Thanks, as always, go to **Katie H** for helping me keep it real (and jabbing me with a cattle prod to make me just write) and **ArtemisWinter** for keeping me honest. Thanks also to everyone who has left a thoughtful review for me. You guys are awesome readers, and I love hearing from you._

 _Next Time: Chat and Marinette have a moment together. Followed by just another manic Monday… Okay, it's a uniquely manic Monday. The sort of Monday that makes Monday a four-letter-word. Marinette has quite possibly the worst Monday of all time. Tune in to find out all about it!_

 _~Malkharah_


	15. Quite Possibly The Worst Monday Ever

**Chapter 15: Quite Possibly the Worst Monday of All Time**

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-oOo-

.

He'd been running around Paris for hours now, mindlessly sprinting and leaping, throwing himself off buildings and attacking vertical climbs. He had to burn off this energy, this seething frustration with both himself and Chloe.

He felt angry with Chloe for how easily she was swayed by popular entertainment media; guilty about having lied to her about his whereabouts last night, even by failing to correct her assumption that he'd been in the office all day; disappointed that he hadn't found a better way to explain it to her; even more disappointed with himself that he hadn't caught Alya taking pictures to post to Facebook in order to stop the whole fiasco before it ever got started; guilty for not feeling guilty about ditching his fiancée to hang out with his friends; absolutely livid that she was able to manipulate him the way she could, even when he knew she was capable of doing it; irate that she felt she could lay down commandments on who he could be friends with…

That was the worst one. She basically demanded that he terminate his friendship with Marinette. That thought rankled horribly. Chloe's demand just made him so mad! There was no reason for it. It made no sense! Why should they care what stupid tabloid articles had to say about them?

His thoughts chased themselves in circles.

Eventually his headlong mad rush across the rooftops of Paris began to wear his anger out. There was nothing he could do about the situation now. He had made a bad error in judgment in hanging up on Chloe and that was the largest part of what had set off her anger about the whole situation, near as he could tell. And that was fair. He **had** been rude in doing that. There was nothing he could do to change it now.

Next time he got to hang out with his friends he would have to ask Alya not to take any pictures of him to post on social media. There was no way he was just going to not keep his friends…

As his anger slowly simmered off he began to just enjoy running. A small smile finally curled one corner of his mouth and his energy changed. He still ran full bore, but his heart grew lighter with each wind up and leap, each dash, each whirl, flip, and flight through the skies above his beloved home. The only thing that would make this better was if Ladybug were there to join him.

Wet roofing gravel sprayed away from booted feet when Chat Noir skidded to a halt to catch his breath some time later. Rain water rising from his black leather suit in a subtle cloud of steam, he squatted down at the edge of a building to rest. His chest heaved in great huffs of damp air and released a warm fog on each exhalation. The rain had been fairly light all afternoon, keeping him from overheating in his mad dash across the rooftops of Paris, and was only now beginning to grow a little heavier as evening came on.

He pulled out his baton and glanced at the small screen looking for messages or notifications. A short while after he had first become Chat Noir Plagg had helped him set things up so that the baton and his cell phone integrated with each other somehow while he was in the suit. Texts, emails, and phone calls came through to him on the baton so that he was never suspiciously out of reach. If he didn't spend so much time being Chat Noir outside of akuma attacks it wouldn't have been an issue, but Adrien preferred to spend free time as his superhero alter ego whenever he could; he was freer when he wore the mask than he was without it, especially when he had been a younger teen. Nowadays he wasn't so closely guarded by his father, and Adrien had much more freedom, but it still felt good to be Chat Noir and to just run.

There were no messages waiting for him. Chloe must still be ticked off if she hadn't reached out to talk to him again.

Turning off the screen and tucking the baton away into its holder on his belt, he finally blinked and glanced around at where he had landed.

He was just a few blocks away from his old stomping grounds at Collège Françoise Dupont. A small smile curled a corner of his mouth. That first year of school had been just amazing: so many life altering things had happened to him that year. This part of the city was filled with memories.

Before he wandered too far down that trail of nostalgia a faint string of disjointed humming reached his ears. Real human ears perking along with his costumed leather cat ones, Chat Noir's eyes scanned the street below him looking for the eerily familiar sound.

There.

Making their way down the street, a person carrying a green paisley umbrella was humming softly a line from an old show tune. A corner of a pink bakery box peeked out from beneath the canopy and she twirled the umbrella as she wordlessly murmured the tune, sending a sheet of collected rain cascading away from her in a sparkling ring. Moments later, the eerily familiar voice clicked when her scent drifted up to him at the top of the building on the rising air currents.

It was Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Smiling in earnest now, Chat Noir pulled his baton back out and extended it to the ground so he could have a quick route to reach her. He slid down the baton swiftly and struck a pose worthy of the front cover of any fashion publication, retracting his baton to match his six-foot-two-inch height and leaning on it fetchingly, he spoke.

"A good evening to you, fair damsel." He was expecting her to turn and smile at him. He seemed to remember a time Marinette had been somewhat star struck by the mighty superhero Chat Noir. Over the years he had run into her while he was Chat quite a few times and eventually they developed a fun, teasing, and flirty rapport that he truly enjoyed. He was expecting her to be pretty happy to see him.

He was not expecting her to squeak and spin around violently, nearly clobbering him in the face with her umbrella and dropping her box of pastries in the process. "Woops!" He lunged and rescued the box before it could slide too far out of her grasp. Assured that the bakery goodies were safe, Chat shook his hair out of his eyes and grinned widely up into her surprised face. "All safe and sound! I didn't mean to startle you, Marinette. Sorry about that." He glanced at the box and sniffed appreciatively at the warm aromas surrounding the pink box. Grin still firmly in place he met her eyes again. "Though, I guess living in a bakery all your life it's no surprise you have bread and butter fingers."

Marinette blinked at him. One corner of her mouth curled as if in surprised amusement before she reined it into a purse of contempt for his pun, but not before he saw the sparkle in her eye.

 _'Yes: score one pun for the Chat.'_

.

.

His belted tail lashed wildly back and forth and verdant eyes glowed with mischief. He wore a ridiculous grin of triumph at his own terrible pun, one sharp fang catching his lip roguishly. When he finally stood up properly to his full height, Marinette was suddenly face to pecs with the glorious expanse of his finely sculpted chest, all that sublimely seamed and fitted black leather streaming rainwater.

She had never really expected to come face to… er, face… with him while she was a civilian ever again. Caught completely off guard, Marinette squeaked again and backed up several steps. She cursed herself for the involuntary noise and reaction, whining again in the vaults of her mind that it just wasn't **fair** that he had become so impossibly, ridiculously sexy as they grew older.

"Chat Noir!" She hated how her voice had shot up an octave, "You startled me! Why are you here?" Realizing she truly didn't know why he was about, as she hadn't sensed an akuma attack in the works, she frowned at him in concern. "Is there an akuma?"

"No, no akuma." He assured her. He lifted the box in a tiny gesture of explanation. "I was just passing by on my evening patrol and saw you carrying all this stuff. I thought I would offer to lend a hand. After all Marinette, a princess shouldn't have to carry so many things."

Marinette barely contained her huff of disbelief. _'This man… I can't believe he remembered his silly nickname for me after all these years. Or my name, period.'_ There had been more than one instance in middle school, and a few in high school too, where Chat had run into Marinette as she was trying to find a place to hide so she could transform into Ladybug. He was always a little flirty (more than a little) but he kept it very polite and harmless, and so long as she was her civilian self, she found she actually didn't mind such frivolous attentions from him… as long as it wasn't pulling him away from a battle. Inside the mask she shot him down and kept him focused on their jobs defending the city from Hawkmoth in a manner she determined was suitably serious and businesslike for a super hero and icon such as Ladybug. But outside the mask it was like a secret game to her; since he would never know she was the girl behind the mask of Ladybug, bantering with him couldn't possibly do any harm.

Plus, it really was a lot of fun.

"I was managing just fine until you scared the begeezus outta me. If you'll hand that back, I will just be on my way." Marinette held out a hand for her box of pastries. It was already getting damp from the rain. Much more water and the pastries would be at risk of being ruined. She lost her last batch on Wednesday to water damage; she was **not** going to lose this batch too.

Chat Noir stepped toward her and she automatically lifted her umbrella high enough so he would be shielded from the rain with her. He smiled at her brightly. "Seriously, you're carrying a lot. Between the pastry box, that heavy looking bag, and your purse and umbrella, you might drop something. And your arms would definitely get tired. Let me help you, at least for a way."

Any other man on the planet and Marinette would have suspected ulterior motives. But Chat Noir was really at his core a giant softy with a huge heart. He likely did just want to help her carry her things. She shook her head at him finally, smiling in resignation. "Fine. You can carry the pastries."

His grin shone from his face like sunshine, black mask crinkling near the corners of his eyes. "Excellent! I'll take that bag of food too." His nose twitched as he held his hand out expectantly. Knowing he would stubbornly insist, Marinette passed the bag to him as well. Satisfied, Chat Noir winked at her. "Lead the way, Princess!"

Marinette did huff this time, but she started walking, shifting her purse to her other shoulder so she could hold the umbrella over both of them with the hand closest to him. "I can't believe you remembered that silly nickname. Why am I a princess? I don't live in a tower."

He chuckled. Marinette tried to ignore how the sound of his mirth tickled across her skin and made her heart feel light. "Ah, but you used to. You lived in the highest room in the tallest tower of the bakery near… the high school that had the most frequent akuma attacks, back when Hawkmoth first began his reign of terror."

Marinette didn't hear his hesitation in the sentence, as she was too busy enjoying the timbre of his voice and watching for the light to turn green so they could cross the street. She felt particularly wary of bike messengers…

Chat reminded himself to be cautious with his word choice, and how familiar he could be with her. So far as she knew, this was the first she'd seen him in person in at least a year. She definitely wouldn't know he was her friend, and he'd spent just yesterday sitting on her couch and taking care of her while she was sick. Surreptitiously examining her face, he decided she was looking better still than she had last night when Adrien left her apartment with Nino and Alya. He caught sight of the ugly bruising above her eyebrow, the bump where she had hit the floor still swollen and probably tender.

He cleared his throat. "But apparently the princess was grievously injured." He said. Marinette glanced at him, her big blue eyes startled, so he flicked his eyes to her forehead and explained, "That's a nasty bump. Can I ask what happened?"

Marinette sighed. The light turned green finally, so they began to cross, after she gave the bike messenger near them some serious side-eye. For his part, the bike messenger looked a little wowed to see one half of Paris' superhero duo helping a random girl carry a box of pastries in the rain. It wasn't the first time he'd done this, though: Chat Noir made it a point to be at least a bit publicly available for the people of the city. He knew his outfit and powers of destruction, not to mention his height and strong build, made him more likely to seem intimidating to some. If rescuing cats stuck up trees and having snowball fights with small children endeared him to the public and made them trust him more, it was no price to pay at all. Besides he genuinely enjoyed helping people, even in mundane ways. It wasn't the first time he'd helped a random citizen and it wouldn't be the last.

After they were across the street, Marinette answered his question. "I fell and hit my head yesterday. It looks a lot worse than it actually is: no concussion at all, and my fever is gone too."

This was the chance he had wanted to fish for more information. She had never explained to Adrien how she came to be so sick, nor adequately explained her stubborn insistence on going to class and work when she was obviously quite ill and should have stayed home. "You had a fever too? What possessed you to leave home if you were so sick?"

Marinette shook her head. "I'm stubborn… I didn't feel like I could afford the time away from class: we have a really amazing model right now, and I want to get as much time drawing him as possible."

Chat felt his ears burning slightly at that, but stayed focused on her words.

"And as for work, well… There's just a lot of pressure on me right now." She tucked a glossy strand of midnight hair behind her ear. "My boss is cracking the whip for us to finish up some pieces for an exhibit my department is involved in during Fashion Week, which is coming up in just a couple weeks. I've just been really stressed out and anxious all last week, since there's a lot of pressure on me. When I'm stressed I have no appetite, so I didn't eat much at all toward the end of the week. I'm sure that didn't help."

She glanced up at him and colored under the openly concerned look in his electric green eyes. "But I'm fine now!" She waved a hand rapidly at him in assurance and had to catch her purse when it slid off her shoulder a bit. "I had a friend offer to stay with me yesterday after I hit my head, so I was well taken care of. He even made sure I had groceries…"

"Sounds like a good friend!" Chat tried to sound as casual as possible.

Marinette's eyes turned soft and she hopped delicately over a small puddle. "The best. We're not very close… We went to middle school together. But we recently became reacquainted. I hope we get to be better friends."

Chat couldn't help how his lips curved upward, an extra little bounce in his step.

They trekked on through the slowly darkening haze of twilight, walking together under her green umbrella making infrequent small talk. After several more blocks they turned south, away from the river and in the direction he knew led to the university and Marinette's apartment. Agreste Fashion HQ and his own apartment were in the same area. There weren't many people out despite it being a Saturday evening. The rain kept most people indoors, so the walk was very quiet and uninterrupted.

As they approached Marinette's building, she gestured for his benefit. "You can't see it from here, but my apartment is on the top floor on the southwest corner. The one with all the plants."

Chat nodded and followed her underneath the awning over the building's entryway. "Do me a favor and flick your lights on and off a few times when you get up there so I know you made it." He said as he watched her flap the umbrella a few times to shake the rain off, before hooking the handle over her arm.

"Sure, I can do that." Marinette agreed. She held her hands out and Chat deposited the handles of the plastic bag and the slightly damp pastry box in her arms. After a moment, she grinned at him before popping the lid open and pulling out an absolutely succulent looking crème tart with sugared raspberries on top. "Here: a reward for your help."

Chat felt touched. "Oh… you don't have to…" She wanted to share her delicious pastries with him? She should be good on food since Adrien had stocked her kitchen for her yesterday, but he still hated to take anything from her. He remembered exactly how weak and fragile she had seemed yesterday morning, and his heart twinged.

Marinette shook her head stubbornly. "Please, I insist." She held the tart out further.

Carefully, Chat accepted the treat. "Well… since you insist." It smelled amazing, rich and sweet with the tang of fresh fruit. On the walk over he hadn't been able to catch much of Marinette's scent with the rain washing everything out of the air. But here under the awning he wondered if the sweetness was from the tart or from her. He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and cleared his throat. "Thank you, Princess."

"Thank you, Chat Noir." Marinette smiled at him. She turned and carefully unlocked the security door to the building while balancing her burdens. She stepped inside but stopped the door with her foot before it swung closed. She glanced at him once more, smile deepening to a curious little grin. "See you around, Chat."

"See you." He waved with the hand that wasn't holding the tart, and watched as she turned and crossed the apartment lobby to the stairwell where she vanished from sight.

Chat glanced at the tart in his hand and then out at the rain. It wasn't coming down too hard… Quickly he wrapped the tart in the piece of parchment paper she'd handed it to him with and cradled it carefully to his chest to secure it, then jogged into the rain and across the street to a three story building. He pulled out his baton on the way and deployed it near the building, shooting up about forty feet to the roof. He took a running start and leapt the gap to the next building and the next around the corner, vaulting across the street so he could be in position to see when Marinette's lights flickered on.

Meanwhile he found a spot on the leeward side of a maintenance shed so he could be out of the rain and unwrapped his treat. Eyes on Marinette's balcony, he sank his teeth into the crème tart, sighing and chewing the rich custard and juicy raspberries happily.

 _'Trying to tell me I can't see my friend…'_ His thoughts flitted back to his argument with Chloe earlier that afternoon. _'Maybe she doesn't want to hear about Adrien hanging out with Marinette, but who cares if Chat Noir comes around to visit? She can't tell me what to do.'_

When he had two bites left Marinette's lights flicked on, off, on, off, on… And he knew she was safely inside.

Popping the last of the tart into his mouth, he brushed the crumbs off his gloved hands and savored the last morsel before pulling his baton back out and heading for home. His condo actually wasn't too terribly far from here, so that was convenient.

 _'I can make this work, somehow.'_ He told himself. _'I won't let stupid rumors and articles in tabloids dictate who my friends are! I **have** to make it work.'_

.

-oOo-

.

By the time Monday morning came around Marinette was feeling vastly better. Not quite back to one hundred percent, but her body no longer ached from her fever and the bump on her forehead was barely swollen anymore. The colors had continued to spread and blossom, so now it was a mottled patchwork of lurid purples and maroons, with ugly splotches of greens and yellows. It spanned a third of her forehead from her temple and eye-socket to nearly the middle of her hairline and back into her hair on one side.

"I don't know," Tikki assured her in the bathroom at the university before her figure drawing class was due to start. "I really don't think it's so bad, Marinette." The little scarlet kwami gently arranged Marinette's bangs to hide most of the damage. "If you leave your hair like this, it does a pretty good job of covering most of the bruising."

Marinette was holding a compact of ivory cream and a small blending sponge and frowning at her reflection critically. The bruising had begun to drain around her eye a bit, and the cream makeup wasn't quite opaque enough to do an adequate job of covering up the discoloration. "I guess it will have to do. Anyone who looks at me is going to see I have a black eye that I'm trying to hide with makeup. Ugh, I don't want to go out there…"

Tikki took the sponge and closed it back in its little case, and then retrieved the cream compact from Marinette's other hand. "You've done the best you can. Everyone here knows you bumped your head, so there's no mystery how you came to be injured. The makeup does a fine enough job. Let's go; you don't want to be late."

Resigned now, Marinette placed her things back in the little makeup case she carried and replaced it in her backpack before shrugging it on. Tikki snuggled into her cozy little pocket of the backpack stocked with freshly baked shortbread and they left the restroom.

She'd come to the university early so that she could meet up with Claudia in order to retrieve her portfolio and tackle box of art supplies. Claudia was glad to see her condition had greatly improved over what she had been like on Friday, and met Marinette in the art building lobby with a warm, gentle hug and questions about her weekend. Marinette filled her in on how Adrien had been so kind as to look after her on Friday afternoon and Alya and Nino had come by Friday evening to help take care of her, then she'd spent Saturday being coddled by her parents. The two girls retrieved their things from Claudia's tightly packed art locker on the third floor and made their way back to the second floor to the figure drawing classroom with more than enough time to set themselves up with easels and a table shared between them for their supply boxes.

By the time Adrien showed up ten minutes before class was due to start Marinette was already glancing through some of her previous drawings, looking for things she'd captured well and areas of improvement. As soon as she saw him step into the room, she quickly slammed the front cover of the art pad closed, face glowing pink with embarrassment. _'Stupid Marinette! He **knows** you've been drawing him naked for the past week, he won't be surprised to see naked drawings of himself in your hands. But still… I can't handle the possibility of him looking at me looking at drawings I made of him naked! Ohmigosh!'_

Claudia, set up just to her left, snickered at her.

Marinette threw a piece of charcoal at her for her trouble.

Adrien scanned the room and made his way directly to Marinette once he spotted her. His eyes searched her face, seeming to snag on her attempt to cover the bruising with makeup, but his smile was so sweet when he said, "Good morning, Marinette. How are you feeling? Were you able to rest up and recover some this weekend?"

"Oh yes, I'm feeling much better!" She assured him. Her face was still burning from having been looking at her drawings of him as he walked into the room. Had he seen that? They were friends now! Good friends! She shouldn't blush like this anymore, dammit! "I spent Saturday with my parents and they took care of me. Yesterday I just stayed in and rested, did a couple easy chores around the house. I really do feel a lot better. Thanks for asking…" She'd missed something in there… "Oh! Good morning to you, too!"

His smile broadened into a sunshiny grin for a moment. "Good. I'm glad to hear it." He glanced down then over at the door that led back to the office he'd been using as his changing room, then back to meet her gaze. "I had better go get ready. See you later?"

"Yeah, see you." Marinette raised a hand in farewell as he turned and watched his long legs carry him across the studio and down the hall out of sight.

Claudia put an arm around her shoulder and gently pushed her hand back to her side. "Good lord, he really is an angel made flesh, isn't he? And dat ass!"

Marinette's fading blush surged once again. "Claudia, shut up!"

"I'm just saying, I saw where your eyes went."

"They did not!"

"Don't tell me you haven't wondered if he could crack walnuts with those glutes." Claudia's grin was merciless.

Marinette laughed. "Oh my gawd, **shut up**!" Marinette couldn't deny it: she'd wondered exactly that.

The two girls laughed quietly together until Adrien emerged in his fluffy white bathrobe and class was ready to begin.

It was getting easier to focus on drawing him without allowing herself to be caught up in the fact that this was Adrien Agreste and he was completely naked in front of her. She glanced around at the other artists in the studio, all focused on their work, all focused on him, then glanced back up at Adrien himself. His pose was relaxed this time, reclining on a chair with one knee up and one hand resting against his taut belly, his other arm was tucked behind his head making that bicep stand out as a smooth curve she didn't doubt was hard as steel. Her eyes skipped over one area and moved on to his leg that was not tucked up on the chair, relaxed so the ankle joint made his leg look curved with the top of his foot resting on the floor… But she realized what she'd done.

She was avoiding looking at … one part of him.

When she had glanced at her drawings from the week before she had noticed this vaguely then as well… any time it came to filling in the… groin area of the drawing, she simply filled it with shadow or left the area incomplete. She couldn't turn in any work like that; it wouldn't receive an adequate grade. She hadn't done this with any other model they had had in class.

That wouldn't do. To improve herself as an artist she had to do this. She had to capture the full subject.

Marinette swallowed.

She glanced at his face. Adrien was looking up at the ceiling somewhere off to the right. He definitely wasn't looking anywhere near her.

Marinette swallowed again and clenched her jaw. With what she was sure must have been a look of concentration worthy of her Ladybug persona, Marinette laid her eyes on Adrien's…

 _'Oh for crying in the rain. This is juvenile. It's not the first one you've ever seen, and it won't be the last. It's a penis. A penis. Penis, penis, penis. I'm just being ridiculous because it's Adrien's penis…'_

And that was really the root of the matter. Marinette was ashamed by how hot her face felt; her blush was so intense she could feel her bruise throbbing in time with her heart beat.

Like all the rest of him, it was beautiful, even soft and resting against his thigh. It was a shade or so darker than the rest of his golden tan skin, and originated from a neatly trimmed nest of short golden curls.

 _'There. See? Nothing to get so worked up about. Just a penis. Now, focus on drawing. Do your best. Ignore the heat in your belly and the slipperiness in your panties. He's an art model and you're an artist; this is not the time or place for your hormonal shenanigans. You can work that out at home later.'_

Filled with new resolve, Marinette filled her lungs with a deep breath through her nose and exhaled slowly through her mouth. She picked her charcoal up and got back to work.

.

-oOo-

.

 _'Jesus H Christ, is she **trying** to kill me?!'_ Adrien's teeth ached from clenching his jaw. He had to skip right past thinking about cold icebergs and serene mountain tops to the ultra repulsive: imagining Mayor Bourgeois wearing a leopard printed g-string pole dancing in the middle of a crowd of over excited middle-aged women tearing their knickers off to fling at the stage in order to keep his incipient erection at bay. _'What the fuck is she thinking about?!'_

Marinette's scent had gone from her normal gently floral sweetness to ripe peaches and crème caramel in less than a minute. It had been a crescendo though, and that was the only thing that had saved him from an incredibly embarrassing hard-on in the middle of the figure drawing class: he'd had a little time to adjust.

Less than three minutes later, she was going back toward normal, though she still smelled like sweet ripe fruit somehow. _'What kind of thought ran through her mind that got her that worked up? That is so unfair. How does she do this to me?'_

Feeling on guard now, Adrien meditated on emptiness and solitude and self-control for the rest of the class.

.

Once class was over Adrien donned his robe and made his way quickly back to his improvised changing room to get back into his clothes. He picked up his shirt and brought the ball of white material to his nose breathing in his own scents to clear out the lingering traces of Marinette's little… mental vacation, or whatever that had been. The most prominent scent in the fabric was Plagg's bizarre mixture of petrichor and animal muskiness, but Adrien's own preferred mixture of essential oils was there as well, cedar and bergamot and sandalwood. The normalcy of his everyday scents helped finally ground him and he was able to relax again finally.

Plagg eyed him weirdly from his hiding spot inside the gym bag. "Are… you okay, Adrien?"

Adrien's eyes popped open and he dropped the shirt away from his face which was suddenly burning with embarrassment. "I'm fine. Why?"

The little black kwami drifted free of the bag and watched Adrien as he began pulling his clothes on, starting with that undershirt. "I dunno… You don't usually bust down the dressing room door and dive into the gym bag to start huffing deep breaths of your own undershirt. This is new and unique weirdness for you."

Adrien could feel the back of his neck prickling from the blush. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Plagg just snorted. "Alright, suit yourself."

The blonde got dressed slowly, ignoring the weight of his kwami's ageless eyes as best he could. Once he was fully clothed he accepted his cell phone from Plagg when it was handed to him. Unlocking it, he minimized the world building game Plagg had been playing to find an email and a text message, both from his personal assistant. Adrien opened the text first.

 _Stevens, Roland: Hi Adrien, I sent you an email as well. I'm scheduling an emergency meeting for us this morning at 11:30. I know this cuts close to your volunteer time, and I apologize for that, but it is urgent and your schedule today was already quite full so I had to fit it in early. Text me if you have questions._

Adrien glanced at the time. It was 10:58.

Gathering the last of his things quickly and stuffing them into his gym bag, Adrien also shouldered the messenger bag that contained his laptop and Plagg's cheese cooler and walked briskly down the hallway toward the studio. He sent off a quick message to alert his driver that he was needed as soon as possible, then opened the email and accepted the invitation to the meeting Roland had set.

In the studio, Adrien waved politely to Marinette but kept a little distance from her, not wanting to risk catching her scent again in case she was still smelling so… alluring. "I have to hurry off: I have an early meeting to get to. See you later, Marinette."

Marinette's smile was sweet and friendly. "Alright. Have a great day, Adrien!"

"You too." He finally relaxed again a little. It wasn't her fault her scent was so luscious and thrilling. He needed to have better control of himself. _'She's your friend. She can't help her scent. You're in control of your own body. Don't be a creep. And don't make it weird!'_

As he passed out into the hall and loped down the stairs, Adrien felt a small stab of worry for his assistant. The short notice meeting wasn't the man's usual style at all. _'I wonder what it's about. I hope there's nothing wrong…'_

.

-oOo-

.

To be sure she would have enough time to make it to work well before her 12:00 start time, Marinette dropped her art supplies off at her apartment and chose to pack a croissant and a generous wedge of brie into a lunch box with a pear. She'd eat after she was safely at work once she found a spare moment. She tossed the lunch box into her purse to join the veritable feast of other snacks she had found that Adrien had supplied her with when he bought groceries for her on Friday. Nuts and dried fruits, protein bars, packets of almond butter and Nutella, packets of granola… They all lived together in a pouch in the bottom of the giant tote purse, right next to Tikki's box of fresh shortbread cookies.

She would definitely have enough food and snacks to see her through the day, even if she did have to transform into Ladybug. It felt good to be so food secure. At least, for now.

She could hug Adrien for that alone.

The sky was withholding its load of rain for now with just a light mist falling as she made her way toward Agreste Fashions, though there was a bank of darker clouds rolling in that looked laden with precipitation. Undoubtedly there would be another heavy downpour within the hour.

Worriedly, Marinette eyed the sky. _'How much longer can all this rain go on? How much longer can the city last with so much flooding?'_

She hopped up the steps to her work and passed through the revolving glass doors into the vaulted brightly illuminated lobby, brushing the water from her raincoat and bag. Despite the grey and gloom outside, inside it was a tasteful display of grandeur; white and dark grey granite dominated the space with silver accents and fixtures guiding the eye throughout. There were elongated digital displays showing corporate propaganda, clips of fashion shows and interviews with high level executives, lush displays of potted trees and flowers to make the carefully architected space seem awe inspiring, even imposing.

Marinette nodded and smiled pleasantly at the guards behind the long security desk as she passed them on her way to the turnstiles. Badge in hand, she waved it before the sensor and stepped forward to proceed through the security gate and make her way to her desk.

The sensor flashed red and made a startlingly negative sound. Her hips bumped into the closed gate.

Surprised, Marinette backed up a step to reset the turnstile. She must have proceeded too quickly and made it malfunction. She passed her badge before the sensor again, watching for it to flash green and drop open.

The sensor flashed red, making that negative sound again. The turnstile remained closed.

Marinette's eyebrows began to furrow. _'Why isn't it working?'_ She tried it again.

Red light. _Be-boop._ Closed gate.

"Mademoiselle, could you step over here, please?"

Marinette blinked and glanced at the security guard who had spoken to her. The middle aged man gestured behind her and she followed his gesture; people were looking at her curiously, some with disapproving frowns on their faces.

Feeling her face begin to burn with embarrassment, Marinette stepped over to the security guard who had called her attention. "I'm so sorry. My badge doesn't seem to be working."

"So it seems." He held out his hand. His face was wholly inscrutable, and Marinette's stomach began to feel queasy as she handed her badge to him. He typed her name into his computer and Marinette watched his face, trying and failing to read clues from his expression as he clicked a few times with his mouse.

After a few moments he stood and pushed his chair in, then walked over to one of his fellow security guards, a tough looking woman, and said a few words to her. Soon they both walked over to her, coming out from behind the security desk.

"We'll need you to come with us, please." The man said.

Her stomach clenched and twisted, and Marinette felt herself grow pale as the blood drained from her face. "What is this about?" She hated how faint her voice was and how it quavered.

"Monsieur Bredeauteau needs to speak to you." He gestured. "This way."

Bredeauteau. Her boss.

Marinette's hands came together before her in a white knuckled clasp to control their shaking. She felt sick.

The two security guards bracketed her, one in front and one in back, and ushered her across the lobby to a tiny meeting room with a fogged glass door. The man gestured her inside. "Have a seat."

The woman pushed the door closed part way and assumed an at ease stance beside the opening while the man departed, likely to retrieve Guy Bredeauteau.

They had left someone to guard her as though she were a criminal. Angry and upset, Marinette carefully set her tote bag down and took a seat in one of the three chairs. _'What is going on?'_ She turned and gazed down into her bag where she could see Tikki's luminous cobalt eyes gazing up at her from the depths. She could sense Tikki's shared concern for her, but with the door open, she couldn't risk talking.

The only thing Marinette could do was lower her hand inside her bag. Tikki immediately pressed her warm little body into Marinette's palm, and wrapped her small arms around her thumb in a reassuring hug. Marinette cupped her fingers in the only return gesture she could offer to show her appreciation for the kwami's support.

Tikki slowly nuzzled her forehead back and forth against the heel of Marinette's hand. They stayed like that for almost ten minutes as they waited: Marinette trying to remain calm despite her fears.

When Guy Bredeauteau finally did arrive, he opened the door abruptly, startling Marinette half to death. She jumped and released Tikki immediately, dropping the little scarlet goddess back into the depths of her bag, and pressed that hand to her mouth to smother the scream that had almost escaped her.

Her hand smelled sweet, like honeysuckle in spring and new green growing things. Tikki's smell.

Marinette tried to draw reassurance from it.

Guy Bredeauteau closed the door behind him as he eyed her. A small smile was fixed on his face, insincere and unpleasant. Being in the same room with this man and his empty eyes and false smile made Marinette's skin crawl. Her stomach began to feel like it was clawing its way up her esophagus.

He stepped away from the door and opened an Agreste branded and embossed folder, laying it before her on the table. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Monsieur Bredeauteau said firmly, baring his teeth at her in a grim parody of a polite smile, "Due to your chronic tardiness and absenteeism, your internship with Agreste Fashions has been terminated, effective last Friday the seventh of September."

Marinette began shaking her head, disbelievingly. "I was sick… Injured. It was excused! Adrien said—"

Monsieur Bredeauteau slapped his palm down on the table and leaned into her space, sneering. "No! You don't get to use your **connections** at the top of the company as an excuse, you little whore."

Appalled, stunned, Marinette couldn't summon anything to say in protest.

"So you spent Friday with him. I must say, when you started I never would have figured you for the type to sleep your way to the top." Monsieur Bredeauteau continued, leering at her now. Her skin quivered and tried to cringe straight off her body to get away from his gaze. Her intestines were rolling in her middle, and her face burned with shame at his false accusations. "But you must really be something, ducking out of the office all the time to go stir things up with the son of the company's founder. How did you first catch him in your web?"

"We're not… I couldn't…" Marinette was so off balance she couldn't find the words to defend herself. She felt like if she raised her voice above a whisper, her stomach was so tense she was sure to vomit.

He gestured at her bruised forehead and eye, the makeup around it failing to adequately disguise it as she had predicted. "Did you get too lippy with him and he gave you that for your smart mouth? He's always seemed way too impossibly nice to me. A man like that has to have a darker side he's hiding from the public eye. So he likes to hit his women, hmm?"

She gasped in outrage. "Adrien would never…!"

Monsieur Bredeauteau snorted rudely, interrupting her. "It doesn't matter. You deserved it. Interns don't mix with the likes of him for any other reason I can imagine. In any case, your obscene proclivity for jumping into bed with handsome engaged men at the top of the company to gain favor has little bearing on your termination." He stabbed a meaty finger into the top page of the short tidy stack of papers in the folder; it was a summary of her transgressions. "You have disappeared during your shift five times since you started here six weeks ago, and been late for your shift four other times. Friday was an unscheduled and unexcused absence."

"But I was sick!" Marinette protested again, finally able to find words to defend herself. "I fell at school and hit my head; the doctor I spoke with told me to stay home and rest."

"Do you have a note from this 'doctor'?" Monsieur Bredeauteau demanded.

Marinette froze. She had no note: she had refused Adrien to take her to a doctor because she had wanted to get him to leave her alone so she could still make it to work on time. "I don't have a note… But Adrien was there, he received instructions from the doctor for my care. If you'll just talk to him, I'm sure—"

He leered at her again. "The kinds of sick role play you engage in with your pretty-boy fuck-buddy don't interest me, and I'm disgusted by your excuses. This exit interview is over."

He flipped the folder closed and shoved it at her. Marinette awkwardly caught the folder as the sharp corners stabbed into her chest and one arm. _'Pretty-boy fuck-buddy?! How dare he?! Who does he think he is to speak to me this way? **How dare he** accuse Adrien of violence towards women?!'_

"Get up."

Tears prickling her eyes with anger and distress, Marinette's hand snatched her tote bag and shrugged it onto her shoulder, slowly rising from her chair. Her knees shook and her heart was pounding uncomfortably. _'How can this be? … Adrien said he took care of Friday for me… Was the message lost? Or just ignored? Ignored so Bredeauteau had an excuse to fire me? …I've been fired… What am I going to do?'_ Bile rose in her throat but she swallowed hard to force it back down.

Monsieur Bredeauteau slid the door open and Marinette followed him out on auto pilot, her thoughts racing. _'I'll have to file for unemployment. I'll have to start looking for a new job: I can stop at the university job placement office first thing tomorrow morning to look for other jobs in the fashion industry. Maybe I can find a similar internship with Coco Chanel or Christian Dior companies. If I can't find something soon, I can't stay in my apartment: I can't afford it without this income. Mom and Dad will let me come back to the bakery. But oh, how humiliating… What will I tell them? How can I say I was accused of sleeping my way up the ranks and skipping out on work to seduce my newly reacquainted friend? Oh God, what will I tell Adrien?! I can't tell him… I could never say to his face that someone thinks he beats women! It would break his heart! He would be so hurt! It's the most horrible and untrue thing I've ever heard… He'll be worried when he doesn't see me log on to the chat client; he checks it, I know he does. What could I say to him to explain…?'_ Her face burned with horror and anger at the kinds of things Bredeauteau had accused her of. _'I would **never** get in the way of an engaged man and his fiancée! Adrien is taken! He's out of my league and he always has been! He's just a friend now, and we would never do those kinds of things while he's engaged to marry someone else! I can't believe I've been accused of… of **sleeping** with him to get a better position in the company! I would never…! He wouldn't…!' _

When she finally realized they weren't taking her directly to the exit to kick her out of the building forever, Marinette blinked and glanced around. While she'd been lost in her mind, they had ridden the elevator up to the third floor where the Teen Fashions department was housed, and were walking down the hall to where her group sat. Bredeauteau and the female security guard preceded her while the male guard brought up the rear, guiding her around the corner and directly into the middle of the row of cubicles occupied by her fellow interns and other employees.

Heads swiveled in their direction in curiosity, eyes watching as Marinette was escorted to her desk by security to gather her personal belongings. Her face, neck, and ever her upper chest burned and prickled with humiliation.

Abigail Foust was standing next to Marinette's cube… What had been Marinette's cube. She held an empty copy paper box and an unhappy expression. She had been Marinette's hiring manager, and responsible for her orientation and initial training with the company. Guy Bredeauteau was the manager of the department, though, and firing decisions were his, but it was clear from Abigail's expression that she did not approve of these methods.

Abigail handed the box to Marinette and told her not unkindly, "Please go ahead and gather all of your personal items. Any corporate supplies or proprietary information or materials must remain behind."

Marinette numbly set the folder with her termination paperwork in the bottom of the box and quickly emptied her few personal belongings out of the drawers and off the surface of the desk, aware all the time of the weight of eyes on her. Claudia caught her gaze once, dark slanted eyes concerned, but Marinette shook her head fractionally and stayed focused on her task, trying not to think.

When she was done she picked up her box and turned back to Abigail. Abigail glanced over the contents of the box to confirm nothing proprietary had been included, before gently placing the lid on the box for her.

Guy Bredeauteau, who had watched the whole thing from across the aisle with the two security guards, spoke up again. His voice was smug and pitched just right to ensure the entire row could hear him; "Come along, then. Let's see you out to security and we can all get along to doing more important things with our day."

Claudia popped up out of her seat with an open mouth and an angry expression, but Marinette gave her such a look the poor young woman froze in her tracks. She didn't want her friend to get into trouble. Claudia closed her mouth into an unhappy purse accompanied by an intense frown, but her eyes showed she understood.

Marinette turned back to Bredeauteau and tried to stand as tall as she could, shoulders back and chin up. Marinette's eyes stung with tears she did her level best to withhold.

She stepped out of the cubicle and tried to ignore Bredeauteau and the security guards as they took up positions around her.

In almost no time at all they were back in the expansive lobby. Marinette could feel the blood draining from her face as people watched their procession with some interest, enough so that she was starting to feel light headed again from all the flushing and blanching she had experienced as blood flooded in and out of her head today. Her knees felt unsteady now, as the security gate was opened manually by a guard behind the desk, to allow the four in her procession to pass through toward the doors.

Once past the gate, the two guards hung back while Guy Bredeauteau continued toward the doors with her.

He pressed the handicapped accessible button and turned to her, small false smile fixed in place once more. "If you'll recall, when you began your internship you signed non-disclosure and non-compete agreements. Per these contracts you signed, you are legally prohibited from taking a position with any direct competitor of Agreste Fashions for a period of three years. Your final check will be mailed to your residence."

His empty horrible smile grew, exposing teeth in a shark like grin. "Your days in the fashion industry are over."

The bottom dropped out of Marinette's stomach and numbness washed over her like a tide, eroding at her feet and threatening to knock her down and drag her under. She turned her eyes away from him when she felt her tears well up and spill over, unwilling to let him see the effect his words had had, and stepped out the door.

Unfeeling, she slowly walked down the steps, careful how she put her feet down so she wouldn't slip and fall on the wet granite.

In a daze she took several steps across the plaza outside Agreste Fashions before her legs just couldn't carry her any further.

Her progress slowed to a halt.

Her brain was full of static.

Numb, empty, she was unaware as tears began rolling down her cheeks. The sky opened up and wept heavy, cold rain right along with her.

.

-oOo-

.

 ** _Author's Note: _**_Hello! So yes… This seems bad. But it was the right place to end the chapter. Forgive me the bit of a cliff hanger, please. Rest assured that the next chapter is already under way. Remember, night seems darkest just before the dawn._

 _Thanks go as usual to **Katie H** for being my writing buddy. We work so well together: she works on her writing and I work on mine, and we tell each other about our progress, asking the hard questions. Also, thanks to **ArtemisWinter** for being my beta-reader and finding all my goofy little typos and missed words._

 _Next Time: A handsome white knight in shining armor rescues a princess from the rain, sits her down, and makes her drink a cup of hot chocolate. He also has a proposition for her, because really it's going to save him a lot of hassle too. Funny how that all works out, huh? Monday continues and maybe it won't actually wind up quite as bad as initially feared…_

 _Until next time._

 _~Malkharah_


End file.
